Here's some fantastic news from a new survey showing American voters overwhelmingly support the Democratic approach to balancing the budget over the Republican plan which should strengthen our resolve to hang tough against Republicans demands we capitulate to avoid the "fiscal cliff crisis" in January. Voters Reject Medicare Cuts Flat Out, Prefer Tax Hikes To Reduce Deficit: Survey reports the finding of a new survey from Democracy Corps, and the Campaign for America's Future that 70% of American voters believe cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security should be "off the table."
Seventy percent of the 1,000 voters polled on Nov. 6-7 called for increased investment in Medicare, Social Security and education, as opposed to only 27 percent who advocated the across-the-board cuts that Republicans have pushed -- and to which Democrats have generally acquiesced -- in budget negotiations over the past two years. Three-fourths of voters opposed deep cuts in domestic programs, including K-12 schools and college aid. Only 25 percent found such measures acceptable. ...
The vast majority of Americans reject the type of approach advocated by Boehner and Cantor -- and pushed by the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan of 2010. According to Borosage's survey, 80 percent consider unacceptable the notion of capping Medicare grants, which would inevitably force seniors to pay more out of pocket as rising health care costs outpaced their benefits. ...
The electorate appears to feel differently. Just over 50 percent of those surveyed believe that any deficit reduction plan should include tax hikes for the highest earners and fewer loopholes for corporations. Nearly two-thirds find it acceptable to cut subsidies for agribusiness and the oil and gas industries, which would save around $23 billion over the next 10 years. Seventy percent of Americans agree with Obama's proposition to require the wealthiest 2 percent to bear more of a tax burden.
House Majority Leader John Boehner says that in order to achieve a compromise President Obama must be willing to reduce spending, and by that he means social spending not mean total defense spending which has been significantly increased since former President Clinton successfully balanced the budget and handed off an economy to President Bush that was generating surpluses.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says cuts to Social Security are off the table. I hope he means it as I believe it would be catastrophic for Democrats to capitulate now on these core principles to avoid the artificial induced "crisis" of the "fiscal cliff" in January.
This study should bolster the confidence of President Obama and Congressional Democratic to hang tough as the American people strongly back our position rather than the Republicans, and they reject the fundamental assumptions of the Simpson-Bowles proposal. Former President Clinton had the much better approach to reigning in the vast an unnecessary increases in "total" defense spending and increasing revenues through targeted modifications to tax revenues, including such things as the rates for the wealthiest, closing loopholes, and returning estate taxes to Clinton era levels.