58% of Americans want government shut down
Poll shows most think Republicans too timid in pushing budget cuts
WASHINGTON – There’s a major disconnect between the “political class” in Washington and American voters overall on how to face the budget debate and the wider issue of the growing U.S. debt, a new poll by Rasmussen Reports reveals today.
The survey, taken last week, shows 58 percent of Americans would rather see a partial government shutdown than keep spending at 2010 levels. Only 33 percent would prefer to keep spending at current levels.
Democrats would prefer to avoid a shutdown by 58 percent, but 80 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents say a shutdown is a better option.
The issue arises because Congress has not yet passed a budget for 2011, instead authorizing spending for a few months. That authorization is about to expire.
At the same time, Congress will face a vote in the coming weeks on raising the debt limit above $14.3 trillion. House Republicans can freeze it with a no vote, but GOP leaders signaled a willingness to keep borrowing.
Republicans may fear being politically outmaneuvered as they were by President Bill Clinton in 1995 when they allowed a government shutdown – even though the stock market rose during the spending freeze when non-essential federal employees were ordered to stay home.
“This is another issue that the political class and mainstream voters don’t see eye-to-eye on,” said the Rasmussen report. “”Seventy-six percent of those in the political class would rather see spending continue at current levels to avoid a shutdown; 70 percent of mainstream voters prefer a shutdown until Democrats and Republicans can agree on spending cuts.”
The organizer of a campaign to freeze the debt limit and end all government borrowing says the poll demonstrates House Republicans “have the wind at their backs if they have the guts to change the direction of the federal government 180 degrees by voting against a hike in the debt limit.”
“Poll after poll shows Americans understand the debt crisis and want it dealt with in dramatic fashion now,” says WND’s Joseph Farah, the force behind the “No More Red Ink” campaign that is flooding House Republicans with letters calling for a freeze on borrowing. “Yet it is ironically the House Republicans who are afraid to use the power they have.”
Farah’s campaign is built around the political reality that House Republicans alone can stop the borrowing and spending that is bankrupting America.
“This is their big chance to demonstrate that they are different from the Democrats,” he says. “All they have to do to stop the fiscal insanity is to say no to a hike in the debt limit – one vote! The rest takes care of itself. It will require massive cuts in the federal bureaucracy, which is what Republicans have said they want and what Americans still say they want.”
Farah reminds that even Sen. Barack Obama said he was opposed to raising the debt limit back in 2006: “The fact we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. … Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.”
“Obama has clearly flipflopped,” says Farah. “Are House Republicans going to flipflop, too?”
Sometime in the coming weeks, a bill will come to both houses of Congress requesting approval of a hike in the debt limit from $14.3 trillion, a sum already representing essentially 100 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product and more than 14 percent of the world’s wealth.
Continue Reading at World Net Daily
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