Poll shows Americans oppose entitlement cuts to deal with debt problem

[Jimaz]

From The Washington Post: Poll shows Americans oppose entitlement cuts to deal with debt problem

Despite growing concerns about the country’s long-term fiscal problems and an intensifying debate in Washington about how to deal with them, Americans strongly oppose some of the major remedies under consideration, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey finds that Americans prefer to keep Medicare just the way it is. Most also oppose cuts in Medicaid and the defense budget. More than half say they are against small, across-the-board tax increases combined with modest reductions in Medicare and Social Security benefits. Only President Obama’s call to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans enjoys solid support....

The Post-ABC poll finds that 78 percent oppose cutting spending on Medicare as a way to chip away at the debt. On Medicaid — the government insurance program for the poor — 69 percent disapprove of cuts....

In his speech last week, the president renewed his call to raise tax rates on family income over $250,000, and he appears to hold the high ground politically, according to the poll. At this point, 72 percent support raising taxes along those lines, with 54 percent strongly backing this approach. The proposal enjoys the support of majorities of Democrats [[91 percent), independents [[68 percent) and Republicans [[54 percent). Only among people with annual incomes greater than $100,000 does less than a majority “strongly support” such tax increases....

There is broad support for keeping Medicare structured the way it has been since it was instituted in 1965: as a defined-benefit health insurance program. Just 34 percent of Americans say Medicare should be changed along the lines outlined in the Ryan budget proposal, shifting it away from a defined-benefit plan.

54 percent of Republicans back Obama's plan to raise tax rates on family income over $250,000?! Man bites dog! Print it!

[Crumbled_pavement]

It's going to take more than just raising taxes on the 250K and up crowd to deal with our deficit problem. Btw, I prefer not to call it raising taxes. If Best Buy has a sale on HDTVs for a week, people wouldn't say that Best Buy raised their prices after the sale is over. Bush had a temporary tax cut in place, it expired in 2010 but got renewed for two years. If it expires in 2012 and doesn't get renewed, taxes just go back to Clinton era tax rates. We had a booming economy then so the argument that money can't be made if we have Clinton era tax rates is a lie.

But government is also going to have to cut spending too. Notice you can raise revenue and cut spending at the same time [[no politician of either party will ever tell you that, they want you to make an either/or choice). The biggest drivers of the deficit are entitlements and military spending. They have to be cut, unless everyone is willing to pay higher taxes. There is not a majority support for any plan that would actually reduce the deficit, which means a lot of people are going to be unhappy. Oh well, after a night out on the town drinking and partying comes the hangover.

[Det_ard]

The budget/debt/deficit polls in a nutshell: people support making "the other guy" take the hit.

People favor getting something for nothing. Shocking. No cutbacks in Medicare or Social Security, and raise taxes on the other guy to fund it all.

Sorry, that plan won't work. If we want something we ought to find a way to bear much of the brunt ourselves, not pass off the costs to our kids or that group we wish would carry the entire burden, "the rich". Oh, and "big corporations".

[Detroitej72]

What exactly is an entitlement anyway? To me, a tax break for those earning more than $250,000 a year is an entitlement, yet the ditto heads on the radio call it "their right". Banks getting bailed out is another form of entitlement, as is subsidies to oil companies, yet I haven't heard Rush or Beck complaining about those. Hell, all the foreign aid we send to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other countries is an entitlement but you'd be hard pressed to find any politician call it what it is. Why is the conservative media selective in what entitlements they report on?

[old guy]

Paul Ryan just went home and held a town hall meeting. The hall was mostly filled with people that elected him. When he started talking about trickle down economics, the crowd jeered him. He looked like he was in total disbelief with the crowd. When he said it would be a bad idea to eliminate the tax cuts for the rich, the crowd shouted him down.

I think eliminating those tax cuts for the rich would be a good cornerstone for turning this thing around. There's no doubt though, we have to deal with entitlements to some degree. I still think that some intelligent people with calculators could do wonders cutting back on government waste. That's a huge part of the problem. But just like everything else, we need to utilize multiple solutions to deal with a complex problem. The main thing is, there should be some sense of urgency, I think.

[Crumbled_pavement]

Paul Ryan just went home and held a town hall meeting. The hall was mostly filled with people that elected him. When he started talking about trickle down economics, the crowd jeered him. He looked like he was in total disbelief with the crowd. When he said it would be a bad idea to eliminate the tax cuts for the rich, the crowd shouted him down.

I think eliminating those tax cuts for the rich would be a good cornerstone for turning this thing around. There's no doubt though, we have to deal with entitlements to some degree. I still think that some intelligent people with calculators could do wonders cutting back on government waste. That's a huge part of the problem. But just like everything else, we need to utilize multiple solutions to deal with a complex problem. The main thing is, there should be some sense of urgency, I think.

Amen, Old Guy, Amen!

[firstandten]

Paul Ryan just went home and held a town hall meeting. The hall was mostly filled with people that elected him. When he started talking about trickle down economics, the crowd jeered him. He looked like he was in total disbelief with the crowd. When he said it would be a bad idea to eliminate the tax cuts for the rich, the crowd shouted him down.

I think eliminating those tax cuts for the rich would be a good cornerstone for turning this thing around. There's no doubt though, we have to deal with entitlements to some degree. I still think that some intelligent people with calculators could do wonders cutting back on government waste. That's a huge part of the problem. But just like everything else, we need to utilize multiple solutions to deal with a complex problem. The main thing is, there should be some sense of urgency, I think.

Very good post !

[maxx]

I wonder what Ryan ran on. And didn't anyone ask him about the Bush tax cuts? So is anyone talking recall in his district after his Charlie Sheen act? [I got your votes, suckers.]

[firstandten]

Hopefully people will start to see folks like Rep Ryan for the fraud he truly is

http://www.thenation.com/article/159...stroy-medicare

Some highlights of the article:

Consider Ryan’s approach to Medicare. One of the most fundamental tensions in our politics is that senior citizens are, simultaneously, the demographic group that most benefits from the welfare state and the one most sympathetic to the right-wing push to abolish it. The only age group in which McCain beat Obama was voters 60 and older. Part of the reason Democrats fared poorly in 2010 is that voters 60 and older made up 34 percent of the electorate, up from 23 percent in 2008. Senior citizens were also the group most opposed to Obama’s Affordable Care Act, with 58 percent now in favor of repeal.
This produces all kinds of bizarre, contradictory results, like the iconic Tea Party protester who warned the government to keep its hands off his Medicare. Welfare state for me, not for thee.

The Republican Party understands this tortured impulse well and has been adept at exploiting it, its supposed ideological commitments be damned. In 2003 it passed Medicare Part D, a massive entitlement expansion with billions in giveaways to big Pharma and zero new revenue to pay for it. Ryan not only voted for it; he was the deciding vote in the House.

Ryan has taken this cynical hypocrisy to its logical conclusion. He wants to replace Medicare with an exchange and subsidies system that would, in broad contours, resemble the Affordable Care Act. But the savings he projects would come less from competition than from simple cutbacks to care and benefits. If he succeeds, it’s the end of Medicare and the end of the Great Society. But—and here’s the amazing wrinkle—none of this applies if you’re over 55. Those folks will continue to enjoy the benefits of the very popular single-payer version of Medicare as currently constituted. In other words, if you’re a senior citizen, Paul Ryan will indeed keep the government’s hands off your Medicare. If you’re younger than 55, you’re screwed.

[Redleg81]

If you’re younger than 55, you’re screwed.

After trying to sell the idea of replacing our social security with 401k laden investments during the Bush years, this is their "new idea"-- nibble away at the other big piece of pie-- And risk our future well-being during what will be for most of us, our diaper-laden decrepitude. For myself, my sad little 401 basically reset itself to zero, during the financial meltdown, and now my company who was matching my contributions [[to a certain point), is no longer doing so, again because of the meltdown, leaving me to regrow it on my own-- Sorry, ya tea-bagging puppets, I'm not buying it this time around. Wake the fuck up America.

[old guy]

Here's an eye opener. Again, say one thing while you're doing another. I can still hear my grandmother telling me, practice what you preach. Bachmann is running on the platform of cutting entitlements.


December 22, 2009
Politico
Anti-socialist Bachmann got $250K in federal farm subsidies

Rep. Michele Bachmann [[R-Minn.) — so fond of accusing the Obama administration of foisting socialism on an unwilling America — has apparently been the recipient of about a quarter of million bucks in government handouts.

Liberal site Truthdig links to an Environmental Working Group analysis of federal agricultural subsidies and found that the Bachmann family farm, managed by her father-in-law until his recent death, received $251,000 in farm payments between 1995 and 2006.

Bachmann’s financial disclosure forms indicate her stake in the Wisconsin farm is worth up to $250,000. Her income from the farm has grown from $2,000 a year a few years back to as much as $50,000 for 2008.