Poll: Americans want spending cuts, not tax hikes

Poll: Americans want spending cuts, not tax hikes via Laura Ingraham

The AP reports:

To ease surging budget deficits, Americans prefer cutting federal services to raising taxes by nearly 2-1 in a new poll. Yet there is little consensus on specific, meaningful steps - and a wariness about touching two gargantuan programs, Social Security and Medicare.

An Associated Press-CNBC Poll showed widespread anxiety about budget shortfalls exceeding $1 trillion a year. Eighty-five percent worry that growing red ink will harm future generations - the strongest expression of concern since AP polls began asking the question in 2008. Fifty-six percent think the shortfalls will spark a major economic crisis in the coming decade.
As for detailed cures, the poll shows little agreement - a problem that has long bedeviled lawmakers who often speak about taming federal deficits but seldom vote to do so. 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.

"I'm sure there's waste somewhere," said Terri Davis, 44, a travel company employee from Ashburn, Va. "But I like a lot of government programs that keep order in the streets, that do research about what's dangerous. A lot of things are worthwhile."

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.

Obama announced a pay freeze Monday for the government's 2 million nonmilitary civil servants, saying, "Getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice."

A bipartisan deficit commission that Obama appointed is to issue a report this week, while another bipartisan panel dominated by former officials has released its own budget-balancing plan. Both groups are taking fire for considering savings from popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.

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.

http://www.lauraingraham.com/b/Poll:-Americans-want-spending-cuts,-not-tax-hikes/-54033470330705083.html
 
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101130/D9JQCLT80.html