These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
62% Like Tax Cuts Over More Government Spending
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sixty-two percent (62%) of Americans say it's always better to cut taxes than increase government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their own money.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 20% of adults disagree, and 18% are not sure.
The new findings mark a nine-point increase in support for taxpayers as the best judges of spending since January .
But then Americans by a two-to-one margin - 50% to 25% - believe that a dollar of tax cuts is always better than a dollar of public spending. One-in-four-Americans (25%), however, aren't sure.
Similarly, just 25% say public spending provides much more bang for the buck than tax cuts when it comes to economic policy and creating jobs. Fifty percent (50%) disagree that public spending is better for the economy than tax cuts. But again 26% are undecided.
Women are more likely than men to prefer government spending over tax cuts. Investors favor cutting taxes more than non-investors.
Republicans are almost twice as likely as Democrats to think that taxpayers are the best judges of how to spend their own money. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of adults not affiliated with either party agree.
While two-thirds (67%) of Republicans and the plurality (49%) of unaffiliateds say a dollar of tax cuts is always better than a dollar of public spending, Democrats are evenly divided on the question.
Seventy percent (70%) of voters favor a government that offers fewer services and imposes lower taxes over one that provides more services with higher taxes . Fifty-four percent (54%) worry the federal government will try to do too much to fix the economy rather than not enough .
Support for tax cuts over new government spending has been consistent in years of surveys . As for taxpayers' confidence in themselves over bureaucrats, consider that 74% of Americans trust their own economic judgment more than that of the average member of Congress . By a two-to-one margin, voters also trust their own economic judgment more than President Obama's .
When it comes to Obama's trillion-dollar health care reform plan, most voters think they understand it better than Congress does - and about as well as the president himself.
Fifty-four percent (54%) of voters say tax cuts for the middle class are more important than new spending for health care reform , even as the president's top economic advisers signal that tax hikes may be necessary. Seventy-six percent (76%) believe it is at least somewhat likely that taxes will have to be raised on the middle class to cover the cost of health care reform.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) say government spending will go up under the Obama administration .
While a government job looks less attractive to Americans than it did at the beginning of the year, it remains the top employment choice in today's economic environment .
Still, for nearly four-out-of-five voters, the problem is not their unwillingness to pay taxes. It's their elected representatives' refusal to cut the size of government .
# # #
To view the original report, please use this link: I Ain't Paying That!