62% Claim They Favor Across-the-Board Spending Cuts

If this Rasmussen poll reflected reality, our politics would be entirely rearranged.

62% Favor Across-the-Board Spending Cuts, But 57% Think They’re Unlikely

That’s the headline. Here’s some of the write-up.

Even as official Washington signs off on a “fiscal cliff” deal with $1 in spending cuts to every $41 in new taxes, most voters continue to favor across-the-board spending cuts but doubt they are likely to happen. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 39% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is even somewhat likely that government spending will be significantly reduced over the next few years. Fifty-seven percent (57%) see significant spending cuts as unlikely. This includes 11% who believe such cuts are Very Likely in the near future and 20% who say they are Not At All Likely.

Put me in the 20%, because a large number, maybe a majority, of the 62% in the headline are lying.

If 62% really favored spending cuts, we would not have the miserable class of politicians that we have in Washington. Surely some in that 62% live in Sander Levin’s and Nancy Pelosi’s districts. Surely some of them even live in Charlie Rangel’s district.

Let’s ask that 62% if they favor cutting from some program that they like. Or some program that they depend on. Oh, they’ll say yes to sound responsible, but most of them will keep voting for the pol who brings home the pork. Look at the fight over Sandy storm relief. The Democrat Senate larded it up with billions in irrelevant pork. The House is trying to trim that nonsense out. Guess who will get blamed for any delays. Not the bunch that created a poisonous and irresponsible bill, but the people who are trying to clean it up. Rep. Peter King, I’m looking at you.

We’ll see what happens in the next big fiscal fight. Boehner is framing it as a fight over spending cuts now that taxes have been dealt with. The Obama Democrats will frame the last fight as a “first step” and will demand more taxes, while trying to take the debt ceiling off the table. A reasonable response to that would be, if you don’t want to run into the debt ceiling, stop spending so much. That response would poll well. But it won’t drive policy.