Poll: Americans want lower deficits without higher taxes or reduced services
posted at 5:56 pm on July 29, 2009 by Allahpundit
The bad news? It’s precisely this cake-and-eat-it fickleness that’s led Congress to put off dealing with Medicare and Social Security. The good news? ObamaCare’s a magical mystery miracle program that’s somehow going to achieve all three of these things simultaneously. Through Hopenchange all feats are possible, my friends.
The saddest realization is that the stupidity is bipartisan. Note the Republican numbers on services and the Democratic numbers on taxes.
While you mull, enjoy the new ad from the DNC blaming Republicans for not “fixing” the economy by supporting a bill that helped quadruple the deficit this year while doing jack to halt growing unemployment. Luckily, it’s all Bush’s fault. All of it.
Blowback
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Well, Americans might have to bite the bullet after Obama goes to Nepal for a loan…
Upstater85 on July 29, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Alternate Headline:
Americans slightly retarded.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Term Limits
Knucklehead on July 29, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Solution, don’t add any more spending. Look for programs that is pure waste. Lower taxes…move out of the way.
And in the meantime educate the people how certain programs belong on the state level not on the federal level.
Conservative Voice on July 29, 2009 at 6:00 PM
And a pony!
Chainsaw56 on July 29, 2009 at 6:00 PM
TANSTAAFL…. There aint no such thing as a free Lunch…
But our Government has convinced the American people otherwise…
Just like… you can’t borrow your way out of debt.
Romeo13 on July 29, 2009 at 6:01 PM
Sounds reasonable until every single parent demands that their child be given a brand new Baby Grand Piano to practice on…
Upstater85 on July 29, 2009 at 6:02 PM
“A unicorn, even.”–Snagglepuss
jimmy2shoes on July 29, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Not surprising; but really the question about “less services” is biased in that it only lists some things that would be cut.
Other polls show that people want a smaller government that offers less services. That’s usually around 60% or so.
I also tend to think that people are ingrained with the idea that if government doesn’t provide it; no one will. Education is in order there, somehow.
lorien1973 on July 29, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Also: all this means is that “the rich” are in for another good soaking, because “the rich” don’t need the gov’t services or their extra money so they can pay in more overall.
And that’s how it will be sold for the umpteen millionth time.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:02 PM
ONe thing that I do not like about these questions is that they just say “government.” It needs to read “federal government.”
WashJeff on July 29, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Unicorns and rainbows. I was promised!
disa on July 29, 2009 at 6:03 PM
Sounds like California.
El_Terrible on July 29, 2009 at 6:04 PM
I want no deficits, drastically lower taxes and drastically fewer services.
myrenovations on July 29, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Are you afraid that the good folks running Cook County will be offended?
Knucklehead on July 29, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Cork soakers. All of them.
Hey libs, if you are willing to pay more in taxes, go right ahead. I heard the IRS accepts checks and credit cards. Call it your form of “charity”, and no, this is not tax deductible.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 29, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Enforce the 10th Amendment and I bet you could cut the federal budget in half if not more.
Guardian on July 29, 2009 at 6:04 PM
Here.
lorien1973 on July 29, 2009 at 6:04 PM
The only immediate education is to apply the income tax to everyone equally. These idiots would get serious real fast about which services were really necessary if they were paying 40% out their a$$ too.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:05 PM
Hey… wait a sec…
Snaggle always exited, STAGE LEFT!!!
Was he… shudder…. a Liberal!!!!
/sniffle…
Another childhood Icon shown to have feet of clay…
Romeo13 on July 29, 2009 at 6:05 PM
I am now fully in support of term limits.
d1carter on July 29, 2009 at 6:05 PM
AP, on your criticism of Rep’s response, the “services” question is ambiguious. “Federal services” includes common defense with health and education. Yikes. I assume “vol” means something…. We are at war and support the troops and mission….
clorensen on July 29, 2009 at 6:06 PM
Amercans can’t have it both ways.
Theworldisnotenough on July 29, 2009 at 6:06 PM
And universal oil change, tune up and tire inflation service.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 29, 2009 at 6:06 PM
How many more times are they going to take it in the shorts?
Chainsaw56 on July 29, 2009 at 6:07 PM
worse
chickens with their heads cut off
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:07 PM
I still want a pony.
Cicero43 on July 29, 2009 at 6:08 PM
I give up. Just give up.
I’m tired of living in the land of the Stupid.
Time to get serious about some other place where I just don’t have to pay attention to the fact that my life is controlled by the whims, desires and fantasies of people whom, under the original Constitution, couldn’t vote.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:08 PM
You mean how many times are we going to take it in the shorts?
Do you make money? Because you’re rich now.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:08 PM
Get your hipwaders, malaria pills, and VietCong style straw hats ready folks.
We are going to be in the rice fields before you know it.
Brian1972 on July 29, 2009 at 6:09 PM
Damn you, Chainsaw56, you’ll get your pony first.
Cicero43 on July 29, 2009 at 6:09 PM
WTF?
Downgraded from a unicorn?
Obama is in total freefall.
Sapwolf on July 29, 2009 at 6:09 PM
we can turn it around.
there is ALWAYS time
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:09 PM
Nah. I was hoping the same thing. But there was another choice…some but not others. Check it out again.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:10 PM
Racist!
But seriously, I hate to sound like liberals under Bush, but figuring a way out of the madhouse would be great.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:10 PM
Hey, I’ve got an idea: How about, everybody has to pay taxes?
Cicero43 on July 29, 2009 at 6:12 PM
No, we can’t:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through his sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again into bondage.
Professor Alexander Tytler Penned over 200 years ago while the US was still a British Colony. (describing the fall of the Athenian Republic 2000 years prior).
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:12 PM
I’m looking forward to those rubber tire sandals that Pol-Pot used to hand out.
myrenovations on July 29, 2009 at 6:13 PM
Where in history do you see that? I see the fall of Rome, the separation of American colonists from GB, etc. that show me there is a tipping point at which the main society can no longer be saved, and the culture either falls or splits.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:13 PM
And sexist. And elitist. But it sure would be nice these days…
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Racist. Don’t you know that some people are too good to pay taxes. You know, two legs is better than four and such…..
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on July 29, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Yeah, I think a lot of people have the feeling that you could cut a load of fat and reduce the deficit without raising taxes or really reducing services.
ddrintn on July 29, 2009 at 6:15 PM
That’s what I was getting at but did not articluate too well. I HOPE the “(Vol.)” designation meant that respondents volunteered this as an unsolicited response that the researcher/telephone person did NOT provide. I wonder whether the research question was designed to suggest either you are for all “federal services” (including health care and education) or none? Dunno.
clorensen on July 29, 2009 at 6:15 PM
I think this is probably how entitlement programs go. Clinton is still taking flack for changing welfare.
AnninCA on July 29, 2009 at 6:16 PM
We will enter bondage, but I know we can break from it again.
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:16 PM
Yes. The end of the republic came when the income tax was established. Once again, to look back to England: in order to finance new social programs the rich were taxed at higher rates. This continued throughout colonization and ultimately we left because of higher taxation.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:16 PM
How, exactly?
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:17 PM
things aren’t set in stone
our planet has NEVER seen a nation like ours.
our planet has NEVER seen such prosperity, such wealth and success.
throw history out the window. we’ve MADE history. we don’t need to follow it, and i don’t think we will. we will not simply walk into the night and fade away like others have.
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:18 PM
Translation: We still have a lot of work to do in educating the population regarding the meaning of federalism.
thirteen28 on July 29, 2009 at 6:18 PM
Except we are not a democracy, we are a federal constitutional republic.
Wolftech on July 29, 2009 at 6:18 PM
i think we have the right ideas, and our time will come in the future.
fine, they might not, but why give in?
might as well fight to the last breath
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:19 PM
The way I see it, the bondage imposed by government isn’t going to be broken. Again, look at history, when a majority of the society thinks it can offload everything to one group, they tend to enslave them in various forms or fashions.
The way to break out is to be done with this charade.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:19 PM
Not to worry, Romeo13! As anyone who has been on stage will tell you, “stage left” is “house right”! :-)
Mary in LA on July 29, 2009 at 6:20 PM
They say they can pay for part of healthcare by reducing waste and fraud. If so, they need to reduce waste and fraud in all aspects of government before they talk about reducing services or raising taxes. I think a lot of folks realize this and that could account for some of the responses regarding reducing the deficit.
califdreamnred on July 29, 2009 at 6:20 PM
Not to deride the idea, I know we’re unique, but it’s insanely foolish to just say history doesn’t apply. The way to turn this around, the way to fight, is to find a way out.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:21 PM
Once again, to much a blank response from HA on the poll.
Conservatives are not willing to cut Defense, it was 1/3 of the items used in the wording of the question about cutting services. I would guess 1/2 may be willing to cut education spending, maybe.
Point is, Conservatives are not will to pay anymore taxes, but was willing to cut certain services. So your headline is bogus. They are not willing to cut defense, take it out of the question, see if I am right. But of course it takes an idiot comments poster to point that out.
WoosterOh on July 29, 2009 at 6:21 PM
They don’t want to be educated. They want to be coddled and entertained.
In the 1970′s, David Frost interviewed George Gallup.
Frost asked Gallup what, after a lifetime of probing the American psyche, most concerned him.
Gallup replied, “I’m terrified we’re going to entertain ourselves to death.”
Done
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:21 PM
we don’t have to not apply it
but we are different. we are not like others, IMO
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:22 PM
That’s okay, you can get yours first, I can’t afford the taxes on one.
Chainsaw56 on July 29, 2009 at 6:23 PM
why does everyone want to give up?
half of this country does not want government enslavement
things aren’t over by a longshot
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:23 PM
Cutting most of the welfare state down would make the defense budget a non issue. Cutting out the insane amount of government regulations and the bodies that enforce the regulation would cut out even more. It’s stupid to point to defense and say conservatives are full of it because they won’t cut that.
If you haven’t noticed, it’s a dangerous world out there.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:24 PM
Would that it were so, but Lincoln and the 14th Amendment sorta killed the “federal” part of that formulation. Once the real political power was thus ensconced at a great remove from the citizens, the republic was lost – as Franklin predicted.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:24 PM
I want to feel some optimism and realistic hope. I have been in a funk since late last October when I saw the writing on the wall.
TXMomof3 on July 29, 2009 at 6:24 PM
Don’t feel bad, I couldn’t afford to feed a pony.
BTW, are pony’s covered under ObamaCare?
Knucklehead on July 29, 2009 at 6:25 PM
I don’t want to “give up” which is why I want out of this system. It’s a disaster now, not what it once was, and it’s been trending that way for a hundred years.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:25 PM
The study omitted another thing Americans on both sides want: The existing work rate (I’m talking along all points of the spectrum here) — both type and pace of work.
EconomicNeocon on July 29, 2009 at 6:25 PM
No they have their own 780 million dollar bailout.
thomasaur on July 29, 2009 at 6:27 PM
What we have are to many sucklers and not enough teat.
fourdeucer on July 29, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Maybe HA community should form a government-in-exile in Belize.
Or better yet, Honduras, where people seem to understand this stuff.
Hmm..have to check out the beach property thing in Honduras, though…
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Wait, I thought we all wanted a piece of the big old “rich people’s” PIE.
Send the Illegal aliens back to their country of origin.
Reduce congressional pay.
Competition in schools -privatize them.
TORT reform
Shut off the PORK spigot.
How about making COngress pay for their health insurance out of their own pocket?
Get rid of Nancy’s private jet.
There are just a few ideas.
stenwin77 on July 29, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Yeah, the civil war pretty much signaled the end of the federal system.
But to be fair, every republican since ancient Rome has realized that a republic is a system that will ultimately fall to the corruption of the original virtues of the system. It’s only a matter of time.
The founding fathers were gripped with this fear as well, and for good reason. A republic will always fall, it’s just a matter of how long you can keep the republic virtuous.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:27 PM
So many whores and not enough Johns.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:28 PM
I have often wondered how people can be so diametrically different. The things that Pelosi and Waxman believe, where does that come from?
TXMomof3 on July 29, 2009 at 6:28 PM
And by the way, I WANT THE MISERY INDEX BACK !
stenwin77 on July 29, 2009 at 6:29 PM
Exactly what services should the federal government be providing?
Why does the fed have to be involved in anything except what’s mandated in the Constitution?
darwin on July 29, 2009 at 6:29 PM
y’all just depressing me.
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:29 PM
Romeo13 on July 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM
I believe it was the great political philosopher Michael Savage who said it best: Liberalism is a mental disease.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM
they like controlling
they enjoy delegation
however, they are too f*cking lazy to go start a business to go delegate and control
so they just decided to do it with taxpayers.
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM
While I totally agree with that belief, you must remember not to use that quote, because its authenticity is dubious at best.
keep the change on July 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Pure evil coming from corrupt hearts that reject any higher power (not trashing atheists, just this mindset) and see that humanity needs order. Where many see the need for order and find it in religion, these people believe that nothing will order society but their own will.
They are evil in its most terrifying form, they believe that this will lead to a greater society because they will lead society.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:30 PM
y’all just depressing me.
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:29 PM
Are you 21 blatant? If you are we will have to have a drink in DC.
TXMomof3 on July 29, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Come on, Belize is really nice. Acquamarine waters. Pretty litte chicas. Fresh seafood.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Average weekly income in Belize is about $50 bucks a week. The only thing Belize has going for it is their reef. Hondura’s beaches are so-so.
Knucklehead on July 29, 2009 at 6:31 PM
Clinton? Nah, they blame mean old Newt Gingrich. And the Democrats have chafed about that until they were able to get back to their spending binge this year.
ddrintn on July 29, 2009 at 6:32 PM
But they also knew that pure Democracy led to a tyrany of the masses, so they tried to chart a middle road… mixing Democracy (House of Reps and President) with direct State Representatives….
Too bad we changed their plan and messed it up.
Romeo13 on July 29, 2009 at 6:32 PM
It’s Obamanomics. Billion is the new million.
Cicero43 on July 29, 2009 at 6:33 PM
Interesting. I once saw something similar attributed to Madison. I googled to find it again, which is how I found Tytler.
I don’t care if Britney Spears wrote it: it has the ring of sage truth.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:34 PM
I’ll be there. I’d love to meet HotAir people. I’ll buy for everyone.
We CAN turn it around.
Holy hell if we can beat the dirty krauts and filthy kamakazies, we can beat these freaking leftists that want to rape the nation.
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:34 PM
I would like to see them separate out Defense Spending from Health Care and Services. Its a bad question any time you end up conflicted because a bad thing is balanced against both a good thing and and atrocious thing.
Count to 10 on July 29, 2009 at 6:34 PM
You just can’t mix the two. It was a greater attempt than any before them, but ultimately a republic will fall, adding in this democratic element merely hastened it.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:34 PM
boys didn’t die on D-Day for us to sigh and let it all go.
fck that
blatantblue on July 29, 2009 at 6:35 PM
The island of Roatan off of the coast of Honduras and governed by the Honduras is beautiful and the diving is World Class. Fresh seafood doesn’t hurt either.
thomasaur on July 29, 2009 at 6:35 PM
For those of us nearing retirement age, who have invested wisely, that works out just swell.
I can kiteboard and snorkle all day and come home to a villa staffed with smiling servants.
I just need to get the hell out before Ogabe and his thugs start seizing liquid assets.
guntotinglibertarian on July 29, 2009 at 6:36 PM
kami(kah-mee): god/divine
kaze(kah-zay): wind
Count to 10 on July 29, 2009 at 6:37 PM
Mea culpa, what was I thinkin’.
thomasaur on July 29, 2009 at 6:37 PM
We just need people to back a secession party in Texas, there’s room for every conservative in the country.
John_Locke on July 29, 2009 at 6:37 PM
I with ya. It’s the ones who don’t want to be mean and offend anyone that you have to convince. They seem to think we can just handle this matter like gentlemen.
darwin on July 29, 2009 at 6:37 PM
–Snagglepuss
jimmy2shoes on July 29, 2009 at 6:02 PM
I find Snagglepuss is widely underappreciated as a political pundit. ;)
flyawaybird on July 29, 2009 at 6:37 PM
The poll was more stupid than those answering it.
-Relaxing after dinner with the family you get a call out of the blue asking these questions (I read the .pdf, and the questions looked rigged to get the answers they got).
-Do you want to lower the deficit? – YES
-Do you want fewer services like health education or defense to get the deficit lowered? You cannot say “You need to be a little more specific”, only yes or no. With such a broad question the answer would have to be NO
-Do you want to pay higher taxes to lower the deficit? NO
Nothing about wasteful programs or pork. The questions were numbers q30 – q32, what were the other questions?
This poll was designed to get these answers and I don’t blame the reps, dems or indies for those answers.
I blame the newsies with the agenda.
cozmo on July 29, 2009 at 6:38 PM
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