Majority ok with government shutdown if it leads to deeper budget cuts

According to Rasmussen:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters think making deeper spending cuts in the federal budget for 2011 is more important than avoiding a partial government shutdown. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree and say avoiding a shutdown is more important. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Republicans want to make more spending cuts in the current budget than Democrats do, but 36% of voters think it would be better to avoid a government shutdown by authorizing spending at a level most Democrats will agree to. Fifty-seven percent (57%) would rather have a shutdown until Democrats and Republicans can agree on deeper spending cuts.

This shows little change from late February when 58% of voters said it was better to have a partial government shutdown than to keep spending at current levels.

The trouble always starts, of course, when you start talking about specific cuts. Unnamed cuts to unnamed programs, fine, but say “We should cut the NEA’s Cowboy Poetry fund” and you’ll face the ire of Dingy Harry.