Don't Tax Me Bro!

Americans are a practical people, our politicians are not. While our chattering class can’t imagine how to fix the deficit problem, the public is actually very clear: cut spending, but do NOT raise taxes. We know this from a new CBS poll, which is actually very enlightening.

To give you the headline numbers, the CBS poll found that 77% of Americans want spending cut to fix the Obama deficit disaster. Only 9% want taxes raised, and an additional 9% want both cuts and tax hikes. This is an unmistakable message, especially for a poll produced by left-leaning CBS.

BUT, say our chattering class, Americans always say they want spending cuts, but they can never agree on what to cut. And if you look at part of this poll, that actually seems to be a plausible interpretation. When asked to volunteer a program they’d be willing to cut to reduce the deficit, only 38% of respondents could name a program. And of those who volunteered a program, no choice came up with anything more than token numbers. For example, the top response was the military (6%), followed by Social Security (4%), welfare (4%), and government salaries (2%).

But can you see what’s wrong with this question? It asks people to wipe out an entire program. In other words, it’s not asking “should we trim the military budget,” it’s asking “should we eliminate the military.” This is a false dilemma, and that’s what accounts for the low percentages. That’s also why the chattering class keeps using this type of question to create the impression that “Americans want cuts in principal, but don’t actually want anything cut.”

So what happens when you dig a little deeper? Well, this poll did. It actually asked people if they would agree to certain specific cuts. Here’s what the survey found people would agree to:

Cuts	Agree	Disagree
Reduce Social Security for wealthy	63%	34%
Reduce money for projects in your area	58%	35%
Reduce farm subsidies	55%	38%
Reduce defense spending	52%	44%

And here are the things they would not agree to:

Cuts	Agree	Disagree
Eliminate mortgage interest deduction	45%	48%
Raise retirement age	43%	54%
Reduce student loan money	41%	56%
Raise taxes	33%	65%
Reduce health care spending	27%	67%
Tax health care benefits	26%	69%

So what does this tell us? First, it’s clear that people will not accept tax increases of any sort. The American people have reached their limits on taxes. Any attempt to go above Clinton-era levels will be hazardous to your political career, and apparently even going this high is enough to wipe out a Democratic majority.

Secondly, take a look at what people are willing to cut. These are not minor programs that no one has ever heard of; these are the sacrosanct “untouchables” of our budget. These are the programs that everyone automatically assumed were excluded from any discussion of budget cuts: social security, “projects in your area” (i.e. pork), farm subsidies and military spending. I can’t think of any programs that have been considered more “untouchable” than these in our politics.

Third, it’s clear that when you go from broad, meaningless questions, like “would you eliminate the defense department”, to "would you be willing to reduce the defense budget", the public shows that they are indeed willing to make some cuts.

So what should we conclude from this? We should conclude that Americans are not looking for sweeping redefinitions of our government. They are willing to remake the government on an issue by issue basis, but forget proposals like eliminating Agency X or Department Y. Indeed, if you are a conservative looking to cut the budget, propose specific cuts to existing programs, but don’t propose broad, generalized cuts. And don’t be afraid to propose cuts in previously sacrosanct programs.

This also means the game is up for the chattering class, and they can no longer hide behind the fiction that people don’t want cuts because they aren’t willing to wipe out whole programs.

The American public is ready to do the right thing. Now our political class needs to catch up.