By Paul Thurman
A new Politico/GWU/Battleground poll finds that 76 percent of Americans favor “Cutting government spending across the board” to avert the fiscal cliff but local and national media continue to focus on tax hikes rather than spending cuts and entitlement reform.
Politico’s recent headline to a POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll reads, “Battleground Poll: Hike taxes on rich.” But recent polls tell a different story:
“An American appetite for tax hikes gives President Barack Obama leverage in fiscal cliff negotiations. 60 percent of respondents support raising taxes on households that earn more than $250,000 a year and 64 percent want to raise taxes on large corporations.”
Reading further, the poll points out that “Three in four voters want to cut government spending across the board,” but 59 percent oppose making significant cuts to the defense budget and 46 percent support ending foreign aid.” Only 13 percent strongly oppose “across the board” spending cuts. If this is the case, then why did Politico decide to lead with the tax-hiking majority, as opposed to the larger majority that wants cuts across the board? How is this leverage for President Obama?
Even the local press has jumped on the bandwagon. Yesterday, the Green Bay Gazette put out a story that focuses on Wisconsin Republicans who signed the Grover Norquist pledge to oppose any new taxes or tax increases. But the local media gave no credence to the fact that a major reason the country is in a financial mess is due in large part to government spending.
All six of Wisconsin’s GOP congressional representatives, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, have signed the taxpayer pledge. Sen. Johnson recently said he does not support tax increases, reiterating his belief that the federal government doesn’t have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem.
Republican Congressman Reid Ribble has abandoned his commitment to the tax pledge saying, “I’m no longer signing any pledges to anybody. I’m not going to sign it next year.”
Overall, when Americans are polled, they consistently choose spending cuts over class-warfare tax hikes on the wealthy. But as usual, this is not the story the media chooses to cover.