Got an e-mail alert earlier today to a most interesting tidbit that the AP (yes, the AP!) caught in their recent poll. They found that Americans’
fondness for limited government is significant in this election year because it shows voters prefer the Republican approach in the core partisan dispute over resolving the nation’s fiscal problems.
The AP-GfK poll found that 65 percent favor requiring that people earning $1 million or more annually pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. Just 26 percent oppose.
Yet by 56 percent to 31 percent, people picked cutting government services over tax increases as the best way to reduce federal deficits.
They did also find, in line with Obama’s rhetoric, that asking millionaires “pay a significant share of their incomes in taxes is widely popular.” SPending cuts remain a big issue to most Americans. And Republicans need keep that in mind as the campaign heats up.
Has it escaped anyone’s notice that the SCOAMF has not sent a bill to Congress, nor have the Democrats in Congress introduced a bill, that would actually implement the 30% tax on Productive People that Obama is seeking?
Gee, one almost suspects that his position is empty political posturing.
Quite aside from the fact that even if enacted, such a bill would have only marginal impact on our spending-driven deficits. Imposing a minimum 30% productivity tax on all income levels (an effective 100% tax increase) would be necessary to keep pace with Obama’s spending levels.
Doesn’t matter what the people want, the deomocrats will keep spending no matter what the people want and they will try covert taxing as well.
Hi Dan,
Until, that is, you actually start naming programs to be cut–then the American people don’t want anything cut, except foreigm aid…
That’s why our task as conservatives who believe in a CONSTITUTIONALLY LIMITED GOVERNMENT is to educate people as to why goodies redistributed from somebody else’s pocket into yours always come with strings attached, Cas. And every one of those strings takes away a little of not only YOUR liberty, but everyone else’s as well. The Road to Serfdom is paved with Food Stamps.
I know that “sticking it to the rich” with higher taxes is “widely popular”, but WHY?! Have the people who support that policy not done the math? Don’t they know that even if Obama took 100% of rich people’s money it wouldn’t make a dent in the national debt? So what’s the point? Is it just a mean-spirited desire on the part of the not-so-successful to punish the successful? And how do conservatives counter this desire? Can someone explain?
Seanne-Anna, isn’t not perverse how Democrats have twisted the meanings of ‘greed’ and ‘compassion’ around such that it’s no longer greedy to demand that other people’s money be confiscated on your behalf but compassionate in their rhetoric?
I’m pretty confident you know this, but it can summed up thusly:
He who promises to rob Peter to pay Paul can always count on getting Paul’s vote.