Political Hotsheet
Polls Show Americans Don't Like Deficits
The latest CBS News/New York Times Poll found that by 52 percent to 41 percent, Americans would prefer the federal government focus on reducing the budget deficit rather than spending to stimulate the economy.
Americans have never liked deficits -- they've been viewed as serious problems, and when the government has run a deficit, polls have often shown that lowering it was a priority.
The government ran budget deficits in the 1980s, during the Reagan Administration, and Americans worried about them then too. In Gallup Polls conducted in the 1980s, just over eight in 10 Americans said the deficit was a serious problem, including about six in 10 who called it very serious.
A few years later, in 1990, a CBS News/New York Times Poll found that 76 percent said the deficit was a serious problem that needed immediate action. Just 16 percent said it was serious but didn't need to be solved immediately, and only three percent rated it not serious.
In more recent polls, the public has shown similar levels of concern about the deficit. In February 2005, fully 90 percent of the public said the deficit was a serious problem in the country, including 52 percent who called it very serious.
As recently as March, 69 percent felt that future generations will be hurt "a lot" if the deficit remains high.
In the past, the public has not seen deficit spending as the best means of stimulating the economy either. In polls conducted in 1993 by both the L.A. Times and Time/CNN/Yankelovich, the public saw cutting the deficit as a more effective way to boost the economy than increasing government spending.
The budget deficit was also a concern the last time health care reform was under serious discussion in Washington. In 1993, 50 percent of Americans said that reforming health care was a more important problem, but nearly as many, 44 percent, chose reducing the federal budget deficit. A 1993 Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll found just 12 percent of Americans were willing to pay for health care reform by increasing the budget deficit – but 85 percent were opposed.
Future polls will show how concerns about the current budget deficit affect discussions of health care reform today, and the public's willingness to support a program than might involve government spending on a large scale.
In this latest CBS/New York Times Poll, Republicans are especially focused on lowering the deficit – 76 percent say it is their priority. Just 40 percent of Democrats say the same.
So far, the public doesn't think President Obama has addressed concerns about the deficit. While the CBS News/New York Times Poll found his overall rating on handling the economy at 57 percent, unchanged from last month, 60 percent of Americans think he does not have a clear plan for dealing with the budget deficit. Just 30 percent think he does.
Sarah Dutton is the CBS News director of surveys. Poll Positions is weekly Hotsheet feature on polling trends from the CBS News Survey and Polling Unit. Click here for more posts from the series.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Americans have never liked deficits -- they've been viewed as serious problems, and when the government has run a deficit, polls have often shown that lowering it was a priority.
The government ran budget deficits in the 1980s, during the Reagan Administration, and Americans worried about them then too. In Gallup Polls conducted in the 1980s, just over eight in 10 Americans said the deficit was a serious problem, including about six in 10 who called it very serious.
A few years later, in 1990, a CBS News/New York Times Poll found that 76 percent said the deficit was a serious problem that needed immediate action. Just 16 percent said it was serious but didn't need to be solved immediately, and only three percent rated it not serious.
In more recent polls, the public has shown similar levels of concern about the deficit. In February 2005, fully 90 percent of the public said the deficit was a serious problem in the country, including 52 percent who called it very serious.
As recently as March, 69 percent felt that future generations will be hurt "a lot" if the deficit remains high.
In the past, the public has not seen deficit spending as the best means of stimulating the economy either. In polls conducted in 1993 by both the L.A. Times and Time/CNN/Yankelovich, the public saw cutting the deficit as a more effective way to boost the economy than increasing government spending.
The budget deficit was also a concern the last time health care reform was under serious discussion in Washington. In 1993, 50 percent of Americans said that reforming health care was a more important problem, but nearly as many, 44 percent, chose reducing the federal budget deficit. A 1993 Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll found just 12 percent of Americans were willing to pay for health care reform by increasing the budget deficit – but 85 percent were opposed.
Future polls will show how concerns about the current budget deficit affect discussions of health care reform today, and the public's willingness to support a program than might involve government spending on a large scale.
In this latest CBS/New York Times Poll, Republicans are especially focused on lowering the deficit – 76 percent say it is their priority. Just 40 percent of Democrats say the same.
So far, the public doesn't think President Obama has addressed concerns about the deficit. While the CBS News/New York Times Poll found his overall rating on handling the economy at 57 percent, unchanged from last month, 60 percent of Americans think he does not have a clear plan for dealing with the budget deficit. Just 30 percent think he does.
Sarah Dutton is the CBS News director of surveys. Poll Positions is weekly Hotsheet feature on polling trends from the CBS News Survey and Polling Unit. Click here for more posts from the series.
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The USA deficiet spending began when President Eisenhaur gave the NSA the power to spend without disclosing their budget to the public. He warned the public about the "Great Defense Industrial Appetite to spend" upon his exit. We were a few years in the Cold War. About 10-13 years later, in the early 70's President Nixon took the USA off the gold standard, so that deeper deficiet spending could be possible. In 1981, President Reagan doubled the ONE Trillion dollar deficiet to TWO Trillion dollars to gamble and eventually win the COLD WAR.
Deficiet spending won the Cold War - Plain and Simple. That was the way the USA sought to end the COLD WAR to keep capitalism spreading across the globe.
By the time the scope of this CBS News Article opened the shutter to take the fiscal deficiet picture, we were already over Two Trillion Dollars in deficiet. Our GDP to Combined Public Debt ratio was 20% in the early 1990's. Today, GDP is actually lower than Combined Public Debt - for the first time since 1929.
The real deficiet problem is in personal budget deficiet for citizens. The poorest citizens don't have adequate credit to amass debt...so this is a middle and upper class infection.
The Repig's have a hard time comprehending a President who is so popular with the thinking crowd. After all the slimey Repig Presidents they farced on to the World. Nixon, Ford, Two-Faced Ronald, Shrub one and Shrub two. There next big dream is to put Boss Hog Limbaugh or regurgitate Gingrich in the White House. True Story.!!
Einstein, Obama never has and never will have the popularity that Reagan did. The high marks of Reagan were not shaded by a liberal media. They reported it to their dismay. Also, it is clearly the non-thinking that elected this knucklehead Obama, and your post is all the proof we need that Obama fans are the real morons.
Ironic, isn't it? The public is opposed to deficits, but CONGRESS loves them! Too bad! It will be the undoing of everyone but the wealthy!
I am now beginning to feel that the direction where our current Congress and Administration is taking us is a little chilling.
Truly what scares me the most is that I am coming to believe that it is not really about providing health care to the "average guy", but rather it is becoming obvious that Washington DC cares only about consolidating their power base (i.e. $8.5 BILLION of OUR tax dollars given to ACORN, pay-backs to unions, etc.) and having as much of our money as possible under their control. The thought of these politicians/bureaucrats having any say over the health care of my child is terrifying - this is life and death, not a political game.
It is true our system needs reform, but let us be cautious in how that prescription is filled. I say this as a person who was born in the UK (as a US citizen) and who watched his mother suffer under their Nat?l Health system for six years. We do not want to create a system under which we will also suffer in the US (if you don't believe this to be true please look at the survival and quality of care statistics coming out of countries with socialized medicine).
How did we become a nation so weak-willed at the individual-level that we would abdicate our individual choice and freedom for a Government handout? Is this what has made our country the number one destination choice for motivated/ambitious immigrants for over 200 hundred years?
So it doesn't sound like that 'hope and change' is working for you, does it...
Obama just wanted to be president - he didn't care at what cost.
Thanks for contributing to his dream. Now, what will you do to help the rest of us - abstaint from swallowing Democratic lies hook, line, and sinker the next election ?