Chamber Poll Makes Case for Stimulus Over Deficit Reduction

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/07/15/chamber-poll-makes-case-for-stimulus-over-deficit-reduction/

By James Parks, Jul 15, 2010

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s so-called Jobs Summit yesterday in Washington, D.C., produced little in the way of real solutions to our economic crisis. Instead, there were the usual complaints about regulation and taxes—it opposes both.

But the real news came from outside the summit, where a new poll commissioned by the Chamber unintentionally showed that its own members agree with the AFL-CIO and most progressives that the federal government should spend more money stimulating the economy rather than reducing the deficit—the direct opposite of the Chamber’s position.

Writing in the New Republic, Jonathan Chait points out that in a poll conducted for the Chamber that only 45 percent of small business owners believe the government could improve the economy by spending less and reducing deficits. Chait writes:

Interesting! Small business owners are more conservative than the average American, but they’re also more economically literate than the average American. In this instance, the economic literacy is overwhelming the conservatism to make small business owners more pro-stimulus than the public as a whole. concludes, “Small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy, and those who keep those businesses running know better than anyone what they need to stay afloat.” So I guess that means we need to spend more and increase deficits, then.

Read Chait’s column here: http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/76274/conservatives-accidentally-make-case-stimulus

FULL story at link.