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Does the American public want to reduce the deficit entirely with spending cuts, or does it support a combination of spending cuts and tax increases? Bruce Bartlett has been collecting the results of every poll that asks this question, and the answer is clear. On average, 65% of respondents want a combination of spending cuts and tax hikes. In 27 polls going back nearly a year, there are only two where the number is less than 60%.
So that’s that. Only 30% of the country wants to reduce the deficit solely with spending cuts, a number that’s suspiciously close to the Crazification Factor. The non-crazies all want some kind of balanced approach. If Obama sticks to his guns on this, he’s on solid ground.
