Deficit-cutting ideas not popular

[Dittohead not!]

AP-CNBC Poll

Forty-seven percent said the deficit should be reduced with spending cuts even if new education, health and energy programs were eliminated, but 46 percent said those programs should grow even if the red ink expands.

Sounds like pretty much a 50-50 split, doesn't it?

Just 34 percent want to renew tax cuts for everyone; 50 percent prefer extending the reductions only for those earning under $250,000 a year and 14 percent want to end them for all.

Only 14% want to extend tax cuts for everyone. Isn't that what the new Republican house wants to do?

Democrats around the country split about evenly over whether a budget-balancing effort should focus on tax increases or spending cuts

Tax and spend Democrats are evenly split over tax increases? That should cast some doubt on stereotypes.

How do the Republicans feel about tax increases vs spending cuts?

In a separate question measuring peoples' expectations, Republicans were roughly evenly divided over whether deficits can be erased without tax increases, despite GOP leaders' insistent opposition to higher taxes.

Isn't that about the same split seen among the Democrats, and among the public at large?

 

[cpwill]

Sounds like pretty much a 50-50 split, doesn't it?

i saw this poll too, what your article doesn't mention is that this is a nittier-grittier discussion; when you look at it broad-scope, Americans prefer cutting federal services to raising taxes by nearly 2-1 in a new poll.... Given more than a dozen options for helping balance the budget, majorities backed just four: Reduce the number of federal workers, trim their salaries, cut overseas military bases and eliminate the tax deduction on home mortgage interest in exchange for lower income tax rates.

Only 14% want to extend tax cuts for everyone. Isn't that what the new Republican house wants to do?

34%. and it's Republicans and a hefty minority of Democrats. it's also worth noting that that's a shift in position from last month.

Tax and spend Democrats are evenly split over tax increases? That should cast some doubt on stereotypes.

well we will see where their leaders stand on the issue. i would bet over 85% of grass roots conservatives are willing to toss earmarks overboard, and our own senators seem rather clueless to that fact. i called mine (shelby) yesterday and told his secretary that having him make that vote made me embarrassed to be from Alabama.

How do the Republicans feel about tax increases vs spending cuts?

...Asked to choose between two paths lawmakers could follow to balance the budget, 59 percent in the AP-CNBC Poll preferred cutting unspecified government services while 30 percent picked unspecified tax increases. Republicans leaned heavily toward service reductions while Democrats, usually staunch advocates of federal spending, were about evenly split between the two alternatives...


other parts of the poll are downright depressing. for example, only 13% of Americans turned out to actually have the ability to remember the last decade: Budget deficits have been winning increased attention from President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, who will control the House next year and wield increased clout in the Senate. Despite their midterm election victory, the GOP holds only a slight 44 percent to 38 percent edge in trust on the issue, with 13 percent saying they trust neither party, the poll shows.

and when it comes to cutting entitlements, we are downright unrealistic: When it comes to culling savings from Social Security and Medicare, the public mood runs from ambivalence to distaste. The giant pension and health care programs for the elderly together comprise a third of the $3.5 trillion annual budget.

People are about evenly divided on whether to reduce Medicare and Social Security benefits for the best-off seniors and whether to raise Social Security payroll taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Nearly two-thirds oppose raising the retirement age to 69 for people to receive full Social Security benefits. Most oppose raising the retirement age even if done gradually over the next 65 years...