Research Areas
Reducing Taxes & Government Spending
Reducing taxes & government spending through commonsense budgeting to reduce Washington’s record debt; and by letting families keep more of their own money to raise their children.
Improving Healthcare and Controlling Its Costs
Improving healthcare and controlling its costs by reducing healthcare costs & expanding access for Americans; and protecting medicare for today’s seniors & modernizing it for the next generation.
Promoting Employment & Self-Reliance
Promoting employment & self-reliance through helping the neediest achieve self-reliance and join the middle class; improving medicaid in order to better care for the vulnerable; effective, locally-run job training; and giving hourly workers the flexibility to trade overtime pay for family time.
Improving Education & Preparing a 21st Century Workforce
Improving education & preparing a 21st Century workforce by promoting affordable & accessible higher education.
Making Washington Work For Americans
Making washington work for Americans by cutting through Washington’s unnecessary, job-killing red tape; holding Washington accountable; and expanding NIH research to fight children’s diseases by not subsidizing presidential campaigns or party conventions.
About YG Network’s Public Opinion Research
Not long ago, CNN Money reported on a survey revealing that “roughly three quarters of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little to no emergency savings” because “after paying debts and taking care of housing, car and child care-related expenses, the respondents said there just isn’t enough money left over for saving more.” This, while tens of millions of Americans remain out-of-work, and millions more live in fear of losing their jobs, one paycheck away from financial and personal disaster.
When it comes to real incomes, the Washington Post recently reported that the “typical American family makes less than it did in 1989.”
It doesn’t need to be like this. But to move past it and get things back on track, we need a workable, aspirational conservative vision.
For millions of middle class Americans looking for an optimistic conservative alternative to the Left’s big-government agenda, there’s a welcome development: The YG Network—a non-profit 501(c)(4) dedicated to promoting next-generation conservative policies—has developed the next generation of conservative messaging focused on the concerns of the middle class.
While it’s absolutely critical that conservatives continue to fight for the American people on issues like ending Obamacare and reining in the Imperial Presidency, we simply can’t allow President Obama’s policy failures—and our efforts to combat those failures—to keep us from giving middle class Americans the robust conservative policies we so badly need.
That’s why YG Network has spent 2013 testing Americans’ receptiveness to our ideas with an extensive public opinion research project that now includes two national benchmark polls, middle class focus groups of Swing and Tea Party respondents in eight cities, and dial tests of Swing and Tea Party respondents in four areas throughout the country. This is merely a first step in our organization’s goal of developing and advocating for our actionable, conservative agenda for the middle class.
As we set out to identify problems and discuss solutions, it was never a secret that middle class Americans are frustrated with our economy’s anemic performance and Washington’s failure to turn things around. But what we saw throughout the nation goes well beyond frustration; words like pessimism, disbelief, anger, dejection, outrage and resentment are closer to the mark.
According to a recent National Journal poll, while 50% of Americans believe a higher level of education is the most effective way to stay in the middle class, 49% believe paying for college is only realistic for the upper class.
These ill feelings are only worsened as Washington leaders fail to connect the dots between our persistent slow growth with its daunting macroeconomic implications, and the day-in, day-out frustration and outrage felt by middle class Americans who were promised better and are willing to work hard for it.
For instance, while conservatives agree that our government’s budget and debt crisis must be brought under control before it’s too late, what causes more middle class men and women to lose sleep are the budget and debt crises befalling their own families. These struggles go beyond the familiar kitchen table hand-wringing over dollars and cents; they are deeply felt, intensely personal, and have clearly rocked many hard-working Americans’ faith in themselves, in middle class values, in our leaders and institutions, and in the future of our communities and our country.
We asked participants what they thought was going well for the middle class, and they truly struggled to provide an answer. We asked if they thought our country was headed in the right direction or on the wrong track, and the near-unanimous choice was that we’re on the wrong track. We asked if they thought their children could look forward to a better life than their own, and they all said no—they expect their children to be worse off than themselves. We asked them who, among our nation’s leaders, is looking out for them, and they said ‘no one.’
Again, it doesn’t need to be like this, but fixing it will take an actionable conservative agenda with clear goals to address middle class priorities, and leadership to bring our fellow Americans on-board with this vision. It’s our hope that this body of research will help prioritize these needed policies as YG Network builds a clear agenda to help our troubled nation.
While YG Network’s extensive research lays bare the stark reality of public opinion in our country, it also gives reason to take heart. As the Wall Street Journal noted in reporting on our focus groups earlier this year, “Despite their deep pessimism about the direction of the country, all but two of the 70 focus group participants favored a more upbeat narrative about the future of the country, believing ‘the middle class can achieve their aspirations’ through ‘smart reforms.’”
Our fellow Americans are down—but they’re not out. Right now they want leaders who understand and care about the pain they’re going through, and who have the courage to respond with policies grounded in fairness that deliver tangible results for middle class families. Below, with all of YG Network’s relevant public opinion research included, are some ideas we believe could help address those demands.