53% said passing a bill overhauling the health care system should be top priority; 52% said the same about reducing the deficit.

Voters consistently rank addressing the federal budget deficit and overhauling the health care system as their top priorities for Congress, Morning Consult polling shows.

But significant developments on those two fronts last week — the Treasury Department’s announcement that the United States recorded a $779 billion deficit for the previous fiscal year and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statement that the GOP could take another crack at repealing Obamacare — were eclipsed by other stories, especially by developments in the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

A new Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted Oct. 18-19 found 39 percent of registered voters said they had seen, read or heard “a lot” about Turkish government officials’ allegations that Khashoggi was beaten, tortured and murdered by a team of Saudi security agents inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.