It’s a rational response. Over the past few years, Congress and President Obama have agreed on almost no new efforts to unleash more growth and job creation across the country. In the name of ideological impasse, they’ve discarded at least a half-dozen jobs proposals — from right and left alike — favored by majorities of voters nationwide.

This is what polling for the last four cycles, including the current midterms, tells us about the country. It remains preoccupied with economy above all other issues, and it remains deeply pessimistic — both about the fate of that economy and the ability of anyone in Washington to improve it.

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A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found 37 percent of registered voters saying the economy was the most important issue in their vote. That’s a steep drop from recession levels, when three in four voters called it their biggest concern. But it’s still the top issue by far for Americans, trumping “the way things are working in Washington,” health care, immigration and international conflicts in terms of voter concern. Pre-election and exit polls in 2012, 2010 and 2008 showed more voters prioritizing the economy than other high-profile issues such as health care, Iraq or the budget deficit.

You might read the falling prioritization of the economy as a reflection of a (finally) improving economy. After all, the unemployment rate has fallen dramatically from its peak, and economic activity is picking up on several measures.

But the public doesn’t see it that way. It’s still wary of the economy and of Washington. In September, a Post-ABC poll found only 30 percent of Americans rated the economy as “excellent” or “good”. That’s doubled from 2012, but almost 7 in 10 still rate the economy negatively. In October over three quarters of them said they worry about the economy’s direction over the next few years. Two-thirds said the country is seriously off on the wrong track, and three quarters are dissatisfied with the way the political system is working.

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Inside the White House, officials say the economic frustration is rooted well before the recession, in the so-called “lost decade” of the 2000s, when job growth slowed and median incomes didn’t rise on net — and that those deep-set frustrations overshadow improving economic data in voters’ minds today.

“Even when people can see that the jobs outlook is better, that housing is rebounding [and] they don’t worry as much about losing their job,” a senior Obama administration official said in an interview this week, “even conceding all that, you have a situation where people say, you know, that isn’t enough. Because the hole was so deep, for my family and my finances.”

Voters have sent sometimes-mixed messages on what economic policies they’d prefer over the last years, electing Obama twice but putting Republicans in charge of the House of Representatives in 2010.

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Still, polls showed there have been a lot of economic proposals that voters really like, and which have gone nowhere in Washington.

In a 2012 Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, majorities identified a host of policies as helpful ways to deal with the job situation. Just over half said tax cuts for personal income, cuts on business taxes and tax increases on companies that outsource jobs all would help spur job growth. About the same number said spending cuts to reduce the deficit would help jobs. Even more popular was additional spending on infrastructure.

All sorts of other economy-themed proposals have polled well over the past few years, sometimes to the point of contradiction.

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Two-thirds supported raising the minimum wage in a December 2013 poll.

Over 8 in 10 favored tax breaks to encourage corporations to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas.

But nearly 6 in 10 also favored eliminating tax breaks for corporations more generally.

Two thirds said the government should build the Keystone XL oil pipeline across the middle of the country, with 85 percent saying this would create a significant number of jobs.

So far, Washington hasn’t acted on any of those.

The results of the next election will likely deliver more heartache. Just watch the ads in this year’s competitive Senate races — almost none of them center on detailed plans to boost the economy. You could argue voters are being offered less of a platform than in past elections.

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Obama and Romney focused much of their 2012 fight on the economy. In 2010, Republicans offered their “Pledge to America.” This year, we don’t have much — and voters notice. More than 6 in 10 say Obama and Republicans have no clear plan to deal with the nation’s biggest problems over the next few years.