The voter gets it. (To some degree)
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 62% believe tax cuts are a better way to create jobs and fight unemployment. Only 21% believe that additional stimulus spending is a more effective tool. Earlier this year, as the first stimulus package was being debated in Congress, 62% of voters wanted the plan to have more tax cuts and less spending.
Given a different choice today, 51% believe canceling the rest of the stimulus money would create more jobs while 32% say spending the money would be the better approach to job creation. These findings are consistent with earlier polling. Most Americans say that, generally speaking, increased government spending is bad for the economy. Earlier this year, before the unemployment rate had reached its current highs, 45% wanted to cancel the rest of the stimulus spending while just 36% disagreed.
The survey also found that most voters are skeptical about claims of government job creation. Most (58%) say it’s unlikely that the stimulus plan has saved or created more than 600,000 jobs.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters are opposed to a second stimulus package.
Robert - I hope that you are correct. But I think you would get different poll results if their Ox was gored. Ask them if they would like to return the following to the free market: public schools; university systems; highways and transportation;medicare, medicaid, social security, the post office...and I bet you get a very different result.
ReplyDeleteI recently read a British psychiatist writing about the human condition: "Men commit evil within the scope available to them...they do what they can get away with." Theodore Dalrymple (Thanks to Robert Higgs blog)