Rasmussen: Plurality wants Porkulus canceled

The American public has lost patience with the Democrats on Porkulus.  According to the latest Rasmussen polling, a strong plurality of Americans want the stimulus spending canceled.  A majority want the tax cuts extended:

Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans say the rest of the new government spending authorized in the $787-billion economic stimulus plan should now be canceled. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 36% disagree and 20% are not sure.

According to news reports, only $36 billion of the stimulus plan had been spent as of late May.

Just 20% of adults say the tax cuts included in the stimulus plan should be canceled while 55% disagree. The stimulus plan includes $288 billion in tax cuts.

Why keep the tax cuts while dumping the spending?  Tax cuts allow people to spend money themselves, instead of trusting Joe Biden to spend it for them.  It also pushes capital back to the market, which creates jobs, rather than into government where it gets spent inefficiently and thus far hasn’t created anything except summer jobs and temp positions for the Census.

In the crosstabs, the demographics play out poorly for Obama, Pelosi, & Co.  The 18-29 and 65-above demos are evenly split on the question, but all other age demographics favor canceling Porkulus spending.  No group believes that Porkulus actually stimulated the economy or created jobs, almost four months after its passage.  A majority believe that government spending is either bad for the economy or has no impact on it.  Fifty-six percent of Democrats believe that Porkulus spending should continue, a pretty slim majority considering the central nature of the policy to the party, but independents favor killing it 44%-32%.  Almost all income levels strongly favor cancellation, except for the under-$20K demographic, which splits on the question.

The Democrats have a great deal of political exposure on this question.  Thanks to the political tone-deafness of Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama allowed Democrats in Congress to railroad Porkulus while garnering only three Republican votes, one of whom is now a Democratic vote.  Instead of allowing the GOP to participate in the bill’s creation and spreading the responsibility for its eventual failure on both parties, the Democrats own this like no other policy in Washington DC — and they’re about to reap a whirlwind as unemployment and the deficit both vault ever higher.  Unless they start showing some real results — and not just the threadbare “saved or created” line the White House favors — 2010 will turn into a bloodbath for Democratic incumbents who voted for Porkulus.

Update: For some reason, WordPress ate my final draft and published an intermediate one.

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