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."
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
President Obama has now turned his attention to the ballooning federal budget deficit, but a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a modest plurality of voters (41%) prefer a budget deficit with tax cuts over a balanced budget that requires higher taxes.
Thirty-six percent (36%) would rather see a balanced budget with higher taxes. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure which is better.
Thirty-seven percent (37%) of voters believe it is possible to balance the federal budget without raising taxes. Forty-two percent (42%) disagree and say a balanced budget is not possible without tax hikes. One-in-five voters (20%) aren't sure.
Obama on Monday released a proposed $3.8 trillion budget for the coming fiscal year, which includes a largest-ever $1.56-trillion deficit. In its reporting on the budget, the New York Times projects that the United States will be forced to run unprecedented large deficits for at least the next 10 years.
Fifty percent (50%) of conservatives are comfortable with the budget deficit if taxes are cut versus 63% of liberals who favor a balanced budget with higher taxes. But then 50% of conservative voters also think the federal budget can be balanced without a tax increase. Sixty-one percent (61%) of liberals say that's impossible.
The partisan differences on the questions are notable. While 50% of Republicans would rather see a budget deficit with tax cuts, a plurality (46%) of Democrats favor the opposite approach - a balanced budget with higher taxes. Voters not affiliated with either party are evenly divided on the question.
Similarly, almost half (47%) of GOP voters think it's possible to balance the budget without raising taxes, but 53% of Democrats don't. Unaffiliateds are more closely divided but tend to agree with Democratic voters.
As is frequently the case, the divide between the Political Class and Mainstream, or populist, voters is even wider than the partisan one. Sixty-two percent (62%) of the Political Class prefer a balanced budget with higher taxes, compared to just 26% of Mainstream voters. Forty-six percent (46%) of Mainstream voters would rather see a budget deficit with tax cuts.
Those in the Political Class are twice as likely as Mainstream voters - 70% to 35% - to believe it is not possible to balance the federal budget without raising taxes.
Eighty-three percent (83%) of voters say they have followed news reports about the president's proposed new budget at least somewhat closely. That figure includes 34% who say they have followed very closely.
Of the four budget priorities laid out by Obama at the start of his presidency, cutting the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term is still number one for voters, but it's also the goal they say he is least likely to achieve.
Fifty-three percent (53%) of voters believe decreasing the level of government spending will help the U.S. economy. Sixty-one percent (61%) say cutting taxes will boost the economy, the highest level of support since May. Republicans and unaffiliated voters are more likely than Democrats to favor reduced government spending and tax cuts.
The national health care plan proposed by Obama and congressional Democrats ran aground in part because 81% of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely to lead to higher middle-class taxes .
Sixty-one percent (61%) of voters now say Congress should drop health care reform and focus on more immediate ways to improve the economy and create jobs.
Yet while 59% believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending as a job-creation tool , even more (72%) expect the president and Congress to increase government spending instead.
The Democratic-controlled Congress increased spending last year in an effort to boost the economy.
But only 35% of voters believe the $787-billion economic stimulus plan it passed last February has helped the economy, while 31% believe it hurt.
Voters still overwhelmingly say the bailouts of General Motors, Chrysler and the financial industry were a bad idea.
One of the key new initiatives in the president's State of the Union speech last week is a three-year freeze on discretionary government spending , but voters overwhelmingly think the freeze will have little or no impact on the federal deficit.
In that speech, the president also declared that his administration has cut taxes for 95% of Americans , but just 21% of voters nationwide believe that to be true. Only six percent (6%) now expect their own taxes to go down during the Obama years.