What do Americans want?
As the so-called Super Congress gets to work on a budgeting agreement, one has to wonder if they will pay any attention at all to the opinions of the vast majority of Americans. The plain, old, every-day Congress didn't, and since these guys are all members of that Congress, even if they are now called "Super", the prospects don't seem very positive. Still, I suppose we can hope.
There is no excuse for them to wonder what Americans think about this issue. All the poll-takers have been busily asking the questions for almost a year: How should the debt problem be solved? By raising taxes? By cutting spending? By a combination of the two? By an astonishing majority, Americans in every single poll even the one by right-winger Rasmussen, prefer that taxes be raised or that there be a combination of raised taxes and spending cuts. Here's a chart that outlines the findings.
You can see that the average findings of all the polls show a preference by 65% to 30% to a solution that raises taxes or has a combination of taxes and spending cuts.
Do you think the Super Congress will bear this in mind during their deliberations? It does seem unlikely. They only listen to pundits from inside the Beltway these days. If you are outside that narrow sphere of influence, you might as well be a resident of Outer Mongolia for all they care. And the Beltway pundits speak with one voice, a voice with a definite tea party accent: "Taxes bad! Spending cuts - especially to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid - good!" I am not at all optimistic about what their final product will be.
There is no excuse for them to wonder what Americans think about this issue. All the poll-takers have been busily asking the questions for almost a year: How should the debt problem be solved? By raising taxes? By cutting spending? By a combination of the two? By an astonishing majority, Americans in every single poll even the one by right-winger Rasmussen, prefer that taxes be raised or that there be a combination of raised taxes and spending cuts. Here's a chart that outlines the findings.
Click on chart to see a larger image.
You can see that the average findings of all the polls show a preference by 65% to 30% to a solution that raises taxes or has a combination of taxes and spending cuts.
Do you think the Super Congress will bear this in mind during their deliberations? It does seem unlikely. They only listen to pundits from inside the Beltway these days. If you are outside that narrow sphere of influence, you might as well be a resident of Outer Mongolia for all they care. And the Beltway pundits speak with one voice, a voice with a definite tea party accent: "Taxes bad! Spending cuts - especially to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid - good!" I am not at all optimistic about what their final product will be.
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