Inflation has been one of the primary concerns (if not the primary concern) of voters in several polls for a while now. With everything more expensive than ever and prices remaining high, the economic stability of the United States has voters extremely worried.

In fact, that was one of the key issues going into the 2022 midterms. Virtually every poll showed that voters were most concerned about inflation and the economy, and other issues trailed a bit behind.

But, a new poll from Gallup shows that there is something voters currently think is a bigger problem than inflation: The U.S. Government.

More Americans name the government as the nation’s top problem in Gallup’s latest poll, which encompassed the rocky start of the 118^th Congress’ term. With high prices persisting, inflation remains the second most-cited problem (15%), and amid elevated tensions about the southern U.S. border, illegal immigration edged up three percentage points to 11%. Mentions of the economy in general fell six points, to 10%, the lowest reading in a year.

Granted, if you combine “Inflation” and “Economy in general,” economic concerns still outweigh “The government/Poor leadership,” but not by much – 25 to 21. A lack of decent leadership in government is creating a lot of worry among voters, which doesn’t bode well for either party, but it really has a negative impact on the party in power, which in this case is still the Democrats.

It’s also telling just how much more of a problem government leadership is over, say, crime or racism, two issues Republicans and Democrats respectively make top issues each cycle. That would indicate citizens want to hear less on moral platitudes from politicians and want to see more solutions… which, admittedly, is not unreasonable, but it is probably impossible at this point.

It’s also noteworthy that immigration is a growing concern among voters, which, again, probably has something to do with the lack of solutions coming from the White House and Congress. How much better off would Americans be if our politicians were working on solutions instead of talking points?

This sort of goes back to a big problem we’re seeing from our political, media, and punditry classes – there is too much focus on things in their own bubbles and not enough focus on the things that actually are meaningful to the average American. Imagine if the political class was busy with real solutions rather than messaging bills and talking points that can fit in a tweet. Imagine if the media were busy doing real journalism instead of activist “Gotcha!” journalism.

There are solutions and, dare I say, even bipartisan ones, but only if the political class were actually interested in solutions as opposed to scoring rhetorical points.