Saturday, December 18, 2010

Poll on tax cut compromise shows the majority do get the government they deserve

A new poll is one of the most revealing ever done in terms of showing who the majority of the American people really are and in the end what really matters most. It also shows why the country has been in the mess its been in for so long.

According to a Pew Research poll, (Pew is the most reliable of the big polls, Gallup and Rassmussen are proven disasters and unreliable in every possible way and so are the news organization polls) ) a majority of Americans, in numbers virtually equal between liberals, conservatives Democrats and Republicans favor the tax cut deal capitulated to by Obama.

According to the poll 62% of Democrats, 63% of Republicans and 60% of independents favor the tax cut deal breaking down to the same percentages whether liberal or conservative. Yet according to the same poll, when asked if the tax cut deal would be bad for the country by adding to the deficit, the answer was yes, by 46-26%. Which shows that a great plurality believes the tax cuts will not do what those who supported them claim they will do in terms of the economy and job growth, but do believe it will add substantially to the already crushing deficit. So the bottom line is, that what the American people care about in the end, what really matters, is everyone wants to get theirs.

It shows that the Tea Party marching and haranguing about the deficit was as phony as it always looked, the refusal of Joe Lieberman to back a public option because he said ( wrongly) it would add to the deficit while backing the tax cut for the upper 2% even though it adds $700 billion to deficit,and all the posturing by Republicans about debt and deficits, was also as phony as everyone knew it was, ( if John Bohener didn't cry, you know he didn't mean it).

And of course, through it all we have the press, the constitutionally protected watch dogs envisioned by the Founders, doing a lot of watching but showing they are no guard dogs, refusing to point out any of this hypocrisy and essentially being more lap dog than watchdog.

The fact that a majority of Democrats, Republicans, independents, liberals and conservatives all favor the same thing in almost identical numbers,pretty much proves that the American people, each group in their own way, despite whatever posturing conservatives do about patriotism on holidays or election day, or liberals posture about Republicans creating the deficits, and wanting to fight against Republican cronism, or one more of Obama's phony promises going down the drain without Democrats standing up to it, what really matters is only one thing -- getting theirs. Like they did in ancient Rome.

Which is why it often takes leadership in Washington to do the right thing and which is why there is practically none of it to be found and hasn't been for ten years with Obama making everything worse when he had all the tools to have made it a lot better. That is he could have if he had a shred of integrity, honesty or skill which he doesn't.

There is an old saying that people get the government they deserve. For the 8 years of the Bush administration the people that voted him in got exactly that, paid for unfortunately andcou to a great extent by a majority who didn't vote for Bush. When the opportunity finally came to vote them out of office and form a government that represented their values, the Democratic Party courtesy of Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Donna Brazille and a few others, blew it by rigging the nominating process in every way they could with a big assist from a totally corrupted press, to send Obama, the most underhanded and duplicitous candidate since Nixon and as unqualified as George W. Bush, to the White House. So in many ways Pelosi and the Democrats got what they deserved to when they were blown out of the House only two years after Obama's election.

Though now many liberals and Democrats who supported Obama are complaining about him they got what they deserved too since Obama's dishonesty and all his others flaws were clearly on display during the primaries.

And based on the Pew Research poll and the "I want mine" mentality of a majority of Americans, they will continue to get what they deserve.Only based on past performance, most of them are not going to like it.

9 comments:

raybeckerman said...

Brilliant article, Marc. Boy did you hit the nail on the head with it.

It's unfortunate that the people of this country have never realized that constantly grabbing to promote their own short term self interest is a recipe for national disaster.

The last time this deeply ingrained pattern of greed was allowed to get to this extreme was 1928.

Enough said.

Unknown said...

Marc, the Pew poll is being spun to make us think everyone else is on board with it. I can't find the article which broke down all the numbers, but this (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/13/news/la-pn-poll-tax-cuts-20101213) indicates some of the problem:

"About seven in 10 Americans questioned in a Washington Post- ABC News poll said they backed the agreement, but only about 11% said they supported all four of the key elements of the deal: the extension of the tax cuts for the rich, added unemployment benefits for 13 months, a cut in the payroll tax and a new estate-tax scheme. Only 38% of those questioned supported two of the planks, according to the poll."

The 70 percent comes from taking the percent who agreed with one of the four key elements and adding them up. The only category that showed a majority in agreement was "against tax cuts for the rich": 52 percent.

Anonymous said...

And this time there won't be an FDR to get us up off the mat of Despair and Depression.

G said...

Marc, the Pew poll is being spun to make us think everyone else is on board with it. I can't find the article which broke down all the numbers, but this (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/13/news/la-pn-poll-tax-cuts-20101213) indicates some of the problem:

"About seven in 10 Americans questioned in a Washington Post- ABC News poll said they backed the agreement, but only about 11% said they supported all four of the key elements of the deal: the extension of the tax cuts for the rich, added unemployment benefits for 13 months, a cut in the payroll tax and a new estate-tax scheme. Only 38% of those questioned supported two of the planks, according to the poll."

The 70 percent comes from taking the percent who agreed with one of the four key elements and adding them up. The only category that showed a majority in agreement was "against tax cuts for the rich": 52 percent.



Posted by G. to Tom In Paine at December 18, 2010 3:17 PM

Anonymous said...

Marc, you sure tell it like it is. Thanks for that as otherwise I would think I'd lost my mind.

Unknown said...

"According to the poll 62% of Democrats, 63% of Republicans and 60% of independents favor the tax cut deal breaking down to the same percentages whether liberal or conservative."

Polls are meaningless when the people who answer them are ill informed and/or because of their needs must knowingly make a bad choice.

First, the media does not inform. I happened to catch the news headlines of the Bush tax cut extension. The T.V. announcers said: "Tax cuts for everybody". One could argue that the voters should inform themselves of the polices being enacted in Washington, but let me personalize what is going on in this country. I know a young lady in her mid 20s who is very intelligent, with a university degree who has 3 jobs to make ends meet. Because the 3 jobs are part-time, she gets no health insurance, and she barely makes it. She's never known what a paid vacation is. Whether one works one or more than one job, few have any energy to do anything but work, eat, and watch the dumb tube so they can do it all over again the next day.
Second, the U.S. have experienced economic stagnation. To ask these people if they want a tax cut that is bad for the deficit is like asking a thirsty person if he wants a drink of water even if he knows that he's depleting the resources for tomorrow.

Blaming the voters for the racketeering that's going on in Washington is not fair.

Marc Rubin said...

"Marc, the Pew poll is being spun to make us think everyone else is on board with it."

Yes I know, youre right which is why I felt compelled to mention the press who are the ones doing most of the spinning as equally responsible ( and reprehensible) for the state of everything thats wrong with the country.

I cant fault Obama for spinning it -- he's just a garden variety sleazy politician like so many others but its the press thats spinning it as if Obama will pick up support in 2012 because of it which is laughable.

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Anonymous said...

I think the poll is an inaccurate portrayal of the view of Americans. I think the reason that many supported the tax cut bill is not because they supported the tax cuts for the rich or the payroll tax holiday. They supported the unemployement extension and some of the few other provisions that benefits the poor and middle class.

When polled separately the Bush tax cut extension is very unpopular. So it the payroll tax cut. Americans know this is a backdoor raid on Social Security and it is not what Americans wanted. Amercians have said again and again they want the income cap raised or eliminated. IUt is just that Obama and his Republican cronies want to destroy Social Security. That is why the only way to help the unemployed came at the expense of the old and poor.