Poll: Public Says ‘Cut Spending Now!’
By Brian Bolduc
The Corner
March 9, 2011 12:00 A.M.
A new poll by Resurgent Republic finds that the public is surprisingly receptive to cutting government spending.
The survey of 1,000 registered voters asked respondents to compare competing political messages. On spending, 49 percent agreed with the argument that “We have got to stop spending money we don’t have.” By contrast, the statements, “We have got to stop mortgaging our children’s future,” and, “We have got to stop bankrupting the country,” received 20 and 18 percent, respectively.
There’s more good news for the GOP: Sixty-two percent agreed with “Republicans who say we need to cut significant federal spending through the rest of this fiscal year” versus “Democrats who say we should continue federal spending at close to the current level.” Even Democrats, by a margin of 52 to 35 percent, thought the deficit was a result of too much spending.
Nonetheless, Republicans face familiar pitfalls. Fifty-three percent agreed with the statement that “We should not balance the budget on the backs of our seniors and the poor. We need to cut back federal spending, but Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid should be off limits.”
That said, in a conference call with reporters, former GOP chairman Ed Gillespie and Republican pollster Whit Ayres remained optimistic about the GOP’s chances for convincing voters about the need for entitlement reform.
“The conventional wisdom in Washington is that voters like spending cuts in theory but they don’t like spending cuts in reality,” said Gillespie. “That’s the conventional wisdom because that’s where voters have been. What this survey reveals is there’s been a change in that approach.”
Indeed, even when respondents heard the argument that “these proposed cuts will destroy American jobs and hurt middle-class families, young adults, seniors, and veterans,” they still favored the Republican message by 60 to 34 percent.
“I’m more optimistic than I have been in years,” Ayres said about Republicans’ chances for a successful public-education campaign about the entitlement crisis.
“The environment out there right now is as open to an honest or an adult conversation as I’ve ever seen it,” Gillespie concurred.
Read the full results herehere.
. |
