In the broadest sense, we say we want to cut spending. According to a new Pew poll, 49 percent of us would rather cut spending to reduce the deficit, while 41 percent of us would rather increase spending to help grow the economy. However, if we break down government spending, policy-by-policy, those numbers fall apart. It's not unlike the paradox of political self-identification. On the surface, Americans appear to be center-right, just like the very serious journalists and pundits enjoy repeating on television and in the op-ed section of the Washington Post. To be fair, there are polls to back up this generalization. But the polls are inaccurate, or, rather, they don't tell a complete story. When Americans are asked to self-identify with a political ideology, most of us say we're "conservative," and very few of us self-identify as "liberal." Well, okay. This is partly because "liberal" has been so brutally stigmatized over the last 40 years -- pollsters might as well ask if respondents are "conservative" or "flamboyantly un-American." However, when we're polled issue-by-issue, the results show that we're considerably more liberal than conservative. We're pro-choice, we support laws restricting gun ownership, we support cleaning up the environment, we're anti-war, we support same-sex marriage, we support higher taxes for the rich, and so forth. Similarly, when we're asked whether or not we want to cut spending, a plurality of Americans want to slash away. But when we get specific, our preference is to keep spending -- by wide margins. And when I write "wide," I mean chasm-wide. Huge. In the same Pew poll, 62 percent of Americans want to increase education spending. Only 11 percent want to cut education spending. Combined with those who want to leave education spending as-is, 87 percent support it. This massive disparity plays out all across the board. 71 percent of Americans want to increase or to continue health care spending at the same levels. Only 24 percent want to cut it. Only 26 percent want to cut spending on environmental protection. I can go on and on. Only 12 percent want to cut Social Security. Only 21 percent want to cut infrastructure. Only 23 percent want to cut scientific research. Only 28 percent want to cut unemployment benefits. Most of us embrace government spending, but we're afraid to admit it. According to another study by Cornell's Suzanne Mettler, many Americans don't even realize they're relying upon government services. 53 percent of those who said they're not using a government program borrowed a student loan from the government. 44 percent are on Social Security. 39 percent are on Medicare (reinforcing the imperative: "Keep your government hands off my Medicare!"). 27 percent are on Medicaid. 28 percent are on Disability. 41 percent are receiving veteran's benefits. Again, these are people who also insist they're absolutely not "living off the public tit," to quote Senator Chuck Grassley. But they are. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/most-americans-are-big-go_b_824906.html
tinkerbell, it doesnt matter what they, you, or your left-kook president want. the day is coming when you all will have no choice. then what will you do? post another questionable poll with shaky methodology to try to stem off the tsunami of bankruptcy heading your way? you cannot present people with isolated questions on whether they want to spend more or less in a pre-defined list of topics. present them with a "we have to cut $x from this group of programs. list them in the order you want cut. THEN you will see those bogus statistics in that hilarious cheesy poll change dramatically. reality isnt something you guys understand. i'd tell you to go back to planet liberal, but they probably ran out of money and that's why youre all here in the first place.
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy." "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. " "There is no such thing as a good tax. " "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. " "We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. " - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965)
Most Americans also want to tax the rich at a higher rate. So is government really representing the will of the people with tax cuts for the top 2%? NEW YORK: Most Americans think the United States should raise taxes for the rich to balance the budget, according to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll released on Monday. President Barack Obama last month signed into law a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for millions of Americans, including the wealthiest, in a compromise with Republicans. Republicans, who this week take control of the House of Representatives, want to extend all Bush-era tax cuts "permanently" for the middle class and wealthier Americans. They are also demanding spending cuts to curb the $1.3 trillion deficit. Sixty-one percent of Americans polled would rather see taxes for the wealthy increased as a first step to tackling the deficit, the poll showed. The next most popular way -- chosen by 20 percent -- was to cut defense spending. Four percent would cut the Medicare government health insurance program for the elderly, and 3 percent would cut the Social Security retirement program, the poll showed. Asked which part of the world they would fix first, the largest proportion of respondents -- 36 percent -- chose Washington, compared with 23 percent who picked the Middle East and 14 percent who chose Haiti. The poll included a random sample of 1,067 adults across the United States from November 29 to December 2. The margin of error may be plus or minus 3 percentage points, 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair said.
"most americans want more government spending" WANT and GET are two completely different things! :eek: The financial MATHEMATICS is at the end of the line.....the unending debt game is coming to a very harsh and abrupt end SOON! US Dollar is wack, and as it is replaced as the worlds reserve currency it is game over! :eek:
many Americans don't even realize they're relying upon government services. 53 percent of those who said they're not using a government program borrowed a student loan from the government. 44 percent are on Social Security. 39 percent are on Medicare (reinforcing the imperative: "Keep your government hands off my Medicare!"). 27 percent are on Medicaid. 28 percent are on Disability. 41 percent are receiving veteran's benefits. ------------------------------- We pay back student loans, re the others, we have contributed something towards that benefit.
Hence the insidious nature of becoming dependent upon gubbermint largess. In order for socialism to win the middle class must get hooked on govt freebies.
A mix of socialism and capitalism, like we had until Reagan began the conservative dream of returning to feudalism, worked very well on the whole. The American dream was alive, people felt secure in their future, people felt pretty damn good. Then we got Reagan, and the rise of the power of corporations and the wealthy to usurp control back from the people...our government when it works best is: Of the People For the People By the People Not: Of the Corporations and their ability to influence government. Of the Corporations and their ability to put profit over what is best for the People By the Corporations who use their financial influence to skew the political process in their favor and against the true wishes of The People. The evils of the military industrial complex were known to Ike, and he warned The People: "But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration. " The evils of the corporation oligarchy is know to people, but they refuse to do anything about it. The problem isn't government...the problem is in the decisions government makes, which are removed from The People, to favor the corporations and influence the pols against The People. No reasonable person can look at who really influences our government and think that the influence of corporations and the oligarchy is out of balance with We The People. As Thomas Jefferson once said, "I hope we shall crush ... in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
Complete load of crap. A lie. The country isn't interested in borrowing from china to squander on ineffective stimulus. You should stop lying.