Ezra Klein: How Americans want -- and don't want -- to balance the budget

[flpoljunkie]

(Note 81% preferred a millionaires' tax to reduce deficits)

How Americans want -- and don't want -- to balance the budget
By Ezra Klein

The quick version of the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll everyone is talking about: Voters don't like deficits or most of the things that have to be done to reduce deficits. They disapprove of cutting most government programs but sometimes approve of them if they're not phrased as program cuts. If something does have to be done to reduce the deficit, they'd prefer to see it done to rich people, rich corporations or the military.

But who wants words when you can have graphs? In one question, the pollsters listed 14 government programs and asked respondents if cuts would be acceptable or unacceptable. In all but four cases, a majority called cuts unacceptable:



As you'll note, the largest majorities were aligned against cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, K-12 education and Social Security -- the major social welfare functions of the government, and where much of the money is. The next question listed 12 actions that could be taken to reduce deficits and asked voters whether they were acceptable. When phrased this way, most options were acceptable -- including options that meant large cuts to programs:

[polichick]

1. But it won't matter because most of our "leaders" don't work for us.

[Vincardog]

2. They never seem to make stopping the illegal wars a line item. Funny that

[CrownPrinceBandar]

3. No option for defense cuts? (other than unnecessary weapons).........

Also, some political ignorance of poll-takers comes into this:

"This all ends up being a little incoherent. Cuts to K-12 education and Medicaid are extremely unpopular, but cuts to state subsidies -- which largely go to support K-12 education and Medicaid -- are popular."

How many people, who don't follow this issue on a regular basis, know what these state subsidies contain? I imagine if the poll was prefaced with a line-by-line detail of what the subsidies consisted of, they would be less cut-worthy. Also, its not like the media has gone out of their way to outline these programs like state subsidies and ACA means.

[emulatorloo]

4. K&R n/t

[DCKit]

5. Again, no mention of unnecessary/illegal wars.

These polls are designed and framed to promote illiteracy of the real issues.