DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Most Americans Are Moderates -- and Thus Invisible

**Ladbarbastirm** · 03-04-2011, 12:22 AM

This thread started out by talking about how moderate Americans are. To prove it, it showed that most people preferred a compromise to the budget cuts the Republicans are demanding because of supposed Republican anxiety over the deficit.

But many, or maybe even most Americans don't pay close attention at all to political fights like this. Of course they are going to be for "compromise." We're all for "compromise" when we don't really know the details of the issue. Most people bring to the word "compromise" the assumption that both sides are reasonable. When that assumption is true, then compromise is usually best. But that isn't always the case, I'm sure we'll all agree.

When it comes to the budget debate currently before us, most people would prefer not to be having it at all. Most people don't think the deficit is the biggest problem, not by a long shot:

(The GOP is seriously miscalculating if they think a government shutdown over this issue of theirs is a good political tactic).

Most Americans care about jobs, jobs, jobs. And the Republican plan to cut spending will make that issue worse, not better, per forecasts by Moody's and Goldman Sacks and others.

But if we put real choices in front of Americans and ask them to choose which they would cut, it's not the choices the Republicans have chosen:

The survey — which was conducted Feb. 24-28 of 1,000 adults (200 reached by cell phone), and which has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points — also listed 26 different ways to reduce the federal budget deficit.

The most popular: placing a surtax on federal income taxes for those who make more than $1 million per year (81 percent said that was acceptable), eliminating spending on earmarks (78 percent), eliminating funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says aren’t necessary (76 percent) and eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries (74 percent).

The least popular: cutting funding for Medicaid, the federal government health-care program for the poor (32 percent said that was acceptable); cutting funding for Medicare, the federal government health-care program for seniors (23 percent); cutting funding for K-12 education (22 percent); and cutting funding for Social Security (22 percent).

03-04-2011, 12:22 AM	#23
Ladbarbastirm Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 378 Senior Member	This thread started out by talking about how moderate Americans are. To prove it, it showed that most people preferred a compromise to the budget cuts the Republicans are demanding because of supposed Republican anxiety over the deficit. But many, or maybe even most Americans don't pay close attention at all to political fights like this. Of course they are going to be for "compromise." We're all for "compromise" when we don't really know the details of the issue. Most people bring to the word "compromise" the assumption that both sides are reasonable. When that assumption is true, then compromise is usually best. But that isn't always the case, I'm sure we'll all agree. When it comes to the budget debate currently before us, most people would prefer not to be having it at all. Most people don't think the deficit is the biggest problem, not by a long shot: (The GOP is seriously miscalculating if they think a government shutdown over this issue of theirs is a good political tactic). Most Americans care about jobs, jobs, jobs. And the Republican plan to cut spending will make that issue worse, not better, per forecasts by Moody's and Goldman Sacks and others. But if we put real choices in front of Americans and ask them to choose which they would cut, it's not the choices the Republicans have chosen: The survey — which was conducted Feb. 24-28 of 1,000 adults (200 reached by cell phone), and which has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points — also listed 26 different ways to reduce the federal budget deficit. The most popular: placing a surtax on federal income taxes for those who make more than $1 million per year (81 percent said that was acceptable), eliminating spending on earmarks (78 percent), eliminating funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says aren’t necessary (76 percent) and eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries (74 percent). The least popular: cutting funding for Medicaid, the federal government health-care program for the poor (32 percent said that was acceptable); cutting funding for Medicare, the federal government health-care program for seniors (23 percent); cutting funding for K-12 education (22 percent); and cutting funding for Social Security (22 percent).
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