What Americans Want?

A fascinating study from Slate yesterday found somewhat suprising results regarding Americans and the fiscal cliff: Slate. While pols in Washington continue to push "tough but necessary cuts to entitlements," the public would actually rather see higher taxes and lower defense spending. The representative sample of 1,000 Americans were particularly apprehensive of cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- a stalwart component of any GOP "compromise" (a word that has little station on that side of the aisle to begin with). But Obama has been playing along in trying to reach that compromise after announcing that he would let us fall off the cliff very recently. The study, which had respondents find the $900 billion in deficit reduction by 2022, moved beyond simple polls that often have little meaning given their lack of context. Given that context and having to make the tough choices themselves, people generally supported higher taxes, cuts to government services and the military and no changes to Medicare and Social Security. 

The poll resulted in 84% supporting a tax increase for some Americans, 66% a cut in non-defense governmental spending, 64% a reduction in military spending, 58% the end of deductions for state and local taxes and over 50% supporting an end to the home mortgage interest reduction. Maybe most surprising, many supported a 6% national sales tax (50% - though it should be noted this is a regressive tax) and even more a carbon tax (56%). So the narrative provided by the GOP seems at odds with the average American, as the last election clearly showed us. And yet that same GOP bargains from a presumed position of strength, demanding compromises that clearly go against the will of the people. It really only further solidifies the belief that the GOP is, in fact, the party of corporations and the one percent -- the only ones who would support policies that make the lives of average Americans worse while lining the pockets of the few.

Yet even the House GOP realize the dangerous water their treading at the moment, after House Speaker Boehner was unable to rally support for his Plan B (Daily Kos). What did that Plan B comprise? Among other things, cuts to food stamps, cuts to meals on wheels (seriously? will there be an increase in funding for removing dead bodies that die of starvation?), cuts to funding for health exchanges and Medicaid, cuts to Dodd-Frank finance reform bill (to make it easier for banks to get bailouts in the future) and denying the Child Tax Credit to American children with undocumented immigrant parents. It is essentially a "screw the poor" bill that even Republicans were scared to touch and might signal the moment that Boehner went too far. One wonders what his role will be going forward, as it appears Obama has little incentive to truly bargain with a guy who can't get a vote for his own plan. 

As many progressive groups have been arguing for weeks, I would prefer to see us "fall off the cliff" and start over without the pesky Bush tax cuts in the way. Tax cuts only work as a stimulus if they are perceived as short term (something undergraduate econ students used to be taught), and that was the argument when the very unpopular Bush cuts were passed. Right now they are at the heart of the deficit/debt conundrum and one has to believe that the current debate is just a continuation of the past 30 years -- increase spending and cut taxes at the same time, allow the deficit to grow and then call for cuts to services (rather than increases in taxes). It has worked wonders, unless you actually care about schools, health, quality of life and your ability to make a decent salary working 40 or more hours a week. I hope Obama shows the backbone he has often been missing when we get down to the nitty-gritty of hard decision making and not pandering to a party that refuses to compromise no matter what he does. 10 days to lift off!