Tea Party Crowd in the Minority on Government Expansion, Poll Shows
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Tea Party celebrants aside, Americans are not too upset about the growth of government, according to a new poll.
When I posted earlier about today's Tea Party movement, noting that polls show Americans are more sanguine this year about taxes than they have been in a while, a number of friends and readers chided me—not entirely unfairly—that the Tea Partyers are more amped about government spending and the growth of government than about tax rates.
For example, Kris of IL wrote:
You missed the point
This is about collectivism taking hold. This is about taking back our individual liberties. This is about protesting against government acting reckless with our money, spending it like drunken sailors. You are very misguided if you think its just about taxes. We've had enough of Democrats forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for more wasteful spending—we don't want to see our hard-earned tax dollars wasted on pork-barrel spending. At this point we are just mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren. The government will continue to devalue the currency and 1) hurt those that spend (because those dollars are worth less) and 2) hurt the poorest Americans because we are a nation that imports significantlly and they will be hurt most by higher prices.
Fair enough. I don't share the Tea Set's collectivism concern, but my first post may have focused overmuch on taxes. So here, according to Gallup, is how Americans feel about the growing government: We approve of the expansion of the U.S. government to help fix the U.S. economy by a margin of 53-44 percent.
This is another blow to the GOP delusion that the United States is a fundamentally conservative country and that Republicans would still be in power if they had hewed to smaller-government principles. (I'm not saying that we're a fundamentally liberal country, but a fundamentally non-ideological country.)
Delving deeper into the data, there are a couple of interesting trends—and ones from which Kris of IL and other Tea Timers can take some comfort. For example, 39 percent of Americans want to roll back the government expansion once the current crisis has been concluded. And while 46 percent of Americans think that Obama wants to expand government power by the right amount (40 percent think government is getting too big), they think he wants to spend too much money (55 percent to 33 percent).
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Reader Comments
ktown of ks
You are a perfect example of why fourth grade dropouts should keep their thought to themselves and not bore the rest of us with them. Your social programs you mention are the products of your Democratic party under the likes of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B Johnson, Jimmy Carter and now Barrack Hussein Sadam Obama. You find 100 times more democrats using these give away programs than you do Republicans. Do a little research my Liberal nut case. I grew up in an area that was 60% democrats and of those 60%, 80% were on food stamps, welfare, or managed to get disability when they were in better physical shape than I was. Social Security started out as a somewhat good idea, we paid separate taxes into it and hoped to eventually get it back. Now it has turned into a program that is on the verge of going bankrupt because your democratic legislatory can't keep their greedy hands off it.
I really like to think of myself as an independent but unfortunately, because of the sick individuals being run on democratic tickets, I have to vote mostly for either third party or Republican candidates. We need to get these sick ideas out of our head like you seem to possess in that if a candidate wears a certain party symbol, he has to be God sent. There are crooks and morons on both sides of the isle, just take a look at Nancy P.,(can't spell her nutty commie last name) Harry Reid, Barney the child molester Frank, Ted keep your daughters out of his car Kennedy, Chris soon to be retired Dodd, Chuck Shumer who never could get more than 5% of even Democrat votes when running for president. You've got crooks and cheats on both sides of the isle but there just seems to be a bigger selection of them on the left side. Now we have a bunch of Obama apointees who don't think they have the obligation to pay taxes as the rest of us do. These are the tax cheets and crooks who have now taken over Washington and if things don't change, we are doomed!! No wonder Texans are discussing the option of secession. Who wants to stay on a sinking ship like the rest of you doomed morons? Patriotism and anti-americanism has nothing to do with it. When you see your on the economic Titantic and your sinking, you get the hell off or you drown in a sea of failed socialistic policies. This is Change?? Our economy in this country is headed for doomsday and people like you had better wake up and see just who is the actual cause of this big problem. YOU DON'T TAX AND SPEND YOUR WAY TO PROSPERITY AND OUT OF RECESSION!! It has never in the history of mankind worked so why is it different now? Just because we have the anointed one in the whitehouse now? While Mr Obama is shaking hands and making friends with the likes of Hugo Chavez, Castro and every other little dictator around the world, Americans are loosing their homes and jobs and banks and businesses are going bankrupt. You can certainly see where his priorities are, huh? Expand One World Order no matter what the cost is to America.
Republicans
The Republican base is a bunch of nut jobs with nothing to do but support the wealthy. I do hand it to the Republican machine...its genius how they turn low income rural hoosiers into mouth pieces for them. Especially since most of them are collecting some type of "socialist" aid. I know most Republicans are not smart enough to realize this but "social security" is a socialist program. as well as medicare, medicaid, etc. The fact is , most of them just mimic what they hear and wouldn't even recognize the definition of socialism. I look at these losers at these rallies and think how doomed this world is with all of these uneducated
people. Just think, If we still had the surplus that was there when Bush took over....we wouldn't of had to go into debt. Instead he spent it all and then some giving it to all the rich people of which you people support. The Republicans surely know how to lead a flock of idiots
Only 13% of Americans want government to PERMANENTLY stay large according to Gallup
A Gallup poll out this week shows Americans generally approve of a temporary growth of government to handle the current crisis but only 13% want it to stay large permanently. "Figures don't lie but liars figure".
I have been subscribing to US News for years mainly because of its unbiased objective reporting and commentary. You are apparently taking the magazine into the tank for Obama.
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