Pollster Scott Rasmussen explains that Americans may have elected a Democrat president, but that America remains a center-right country nonetheless.
Ronald Reagan may have won if he would have run this year. The same goes for 2012.
The reason is simple: 55% of Americans believe that tax cuts are good for the economy. Only 19% say the opposite.
59% agree with Reagan’s statement that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Of Obama voters, roughly half agrees with both statements as well, which indicates that the president-elect may have a problem: he has plans, plans that cost a lot of money. The Democatic controlled Congress has even more expensive plans. They will have to pay for these plans.
The only way to pay for it: raise taxes.
But a majority of American voters will rebel when they do, causing the favorability ratings of all, but especially of Barack Obama, to fall.
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No, raising taxes isn’t the only way to do it.
The US can also a) borrow money from other countries, b) print more money or c) cut spending to free up money. You will most likely see a blend of all three.
The first two certainly aren’t ideal, but these are tough times and if we’re going to jump start this green energy economy, we’ll probably be deficit spending for a little while until we can pull out of this mess.
The truth is a little more complicated than that Michael. In a recent Zogby poll 59% of respondents agreed with the statement that they were “fiscally conservative and socially liberal”. As much as the fiscal conservatives would like to pretend social conservatism isn’t really a part of American conservatism, it is, at least for now. In the past it has helped them enormously by giving them reliable votes, but now it’s less of a sure deal that pleasing the religious right is cost-effective, so to speak.
In any event these kinds of polls I think are poor snapshots of public opinion, especially on the central issues of taxes, spending and social issues.
Do you think lower taxes is good? Of course most people will say yes.
Do you think the government should spend less on the poor? That’s going to get you a different answer.
Do you think deficit spending is the way to fund certain programs? Most people will say “no”
Do you think raising taxes is a good idea to fund certain programs?
Is abortion good? Not even pro-choice people would say “yes”
Should a woman who is raped be forced to carry the baby to term?
You get the idea. The problem is that polls like these don’t corner the person answering the questions. So you get people saying that taxes are bad, deficit spending is bad, but not spending on the poor is bad too, or reducing the size of the military. In polls, people are allowed to have it both ways so they paint the picture of a world where the government spends plenty on the military and social needs without raising taxes on anyone or borrowing any money, where abortions only happen in frivolous occasions and the victims of rape never get pregnant.