Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Republican House out of touch with Republican voters who want to raise taxes

Wed Jul 20, 2011 at 09:54 AM PDT



That's not an opinion, it's a fact. The Behind the Numbers folks at WaPo have kindly gone over their new survey data, and broken out one aspect of the debt and deficit issues, separating responses out by party. [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/behind-the-numbers/post/poll-taxes-beat-spending-cuts-for-debt-reduction/2011/07/12/gIQAnTOrOI_blog.html ]

And guess what? Larger numbers than you'd think on the R side are joining fellow Americans on the D side with wanting to raise taxes to reduce the debt.

In fact, depending on the issue, sometimes, it's a majority of Republicans.

Most Americans see a balanced approach as the best way to reduce the federal deficit with a combination of spending cuts and tax increases beating out only spending cuts or only tax increases in the new Post-ABC poll. But when considering specifics, progressive taxation proposals find more appeal than cuts. [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/post-abc-news-poll-public-sees-dire-consequences-if-no-budget-deal/2011/07/19/gIQA4MQPOI_story.html ]

For all the partisan wrangling on Capitol Hill, there is surprising agreement among Democrats, Republicans and independents on many of the specifics. A 54 percent majority of Republicans support raising taxes on high income earners, a major sticking point in negotiations between President Obama and Republican congressional leaders in the debt ceiling debate.

But it's more than that. When you look at what the public doesn't want, except for not liking cuts to the military, Republicans could be Democrats.



Their opinion on Social Security and Medicare are nearly identical to Democrats. Even on Medicaid, a majority (59 percent) don't want to see cuts.

In this category, only military spending separates Rs from the rest of Americans.

You'd never know it from listening to Eric Cantor or Jim DeMint, but the Republicans in Congress have lost this argument with the public, at least for now. And there's no reason in the world other than obstinacy that should keep taxes from being part of the debt solution in the people's House.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/20/996631/-Republican-House-out-of-touch-with-Republican-voters-who-want-to-raisetaxes?detail=hide