Obama Losing Public Support on U.S. Fiscal Fight
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, 25 September 2013
Americans by a 2-to-1 ratio disagree with President Barack Obama’s contention that Congress should raise the U.S. debt limit without conditions.
Instead, 61 percent say that it’s “right to
require spending cuts when the debt ceiling is raised even if it risks
default,” because Congress lacks spending discipline, according to a
Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 20-23.
That sentiment is
shared by almost three-quarters of Republicans, two-thirds of
independents, and a plurality of Democrats. Just 28 percent of
respondents backed Obama’s call for a clean bill that has no add-on
provisions.
“Sometimes it can be hard to negotiate if Republicans
are making irrational demands, but to say ‘I’m not going to talk at
all’ -- I’ve just never found not negotiating to be an effective way to
get something done,” Sam Manders, a 29-year-old lacrosse coach from
Gray, Maine, and a Democrat, said in a follow-up interview.
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“Sitting down and actually figuring out what you can afford to
lose and what you can’t is always going to be better than automatic
cuts, but if they can’t do their jobs themselves, then we have to have
another way of getting it done,” Manders added.
Fiscal Showdowns
Obama and congressional Republicans are deadlocked over the federal budget
in a confrontation that could prompt a government shutdown within days.
Republicans are insisting that continued spending past the current
budget’s Sept. 30 end date be contingent on defunding the president’s
health-care law. Obama has rejected that proposal.
That showdown could influence the next set of negotiations over raising the $16.7 trillion U.S. borrowing limit,
which the Treasury Department said will be reached by Oct. 17. The debt
ceiling must be boosted to avoid a first-ever national default. The
president has said he won’t negotiate over raising the debt limit, and
is insisting on a clean vote.
“The responsibility of Congress to pay the bills of the United States, bills that Congress has incurred, is not a subject of negotiation,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters yesterday.
With
the nation on the brink of a possible government shutdown and or debt
default, the poll results show a public distrustful of both political
parties and conflicted over what should happen next.
Targeted Cuts
Fifty-six
percent of Americans see across-the-board federal spending cuts imposed
by Congress this year as doing more harm to the economy than help, a
broad rejection of the so-called “sequester” that crosses political
parties. Twenty-six percent of respondents say the indiscriminate cuts
are helping.
Almost two-thirds of the public would rather see the
automatic reductions replaced with targeted cuts. That strong sentiment
comes even as most people aren’t personally affected by the
across-the-board cuts; 30 percent of Americans say their households have
felt the spending reductions. while 66 percent say they haven’t.
“By
2 to 1, they seem to think that the sequester is hurting rather than
helping the economy and they think there’s a better way to go than that,
but in the face of a deficit they believe is getting bigger, they’re
looking for something that will help control spending,” said J. Ann
Selzer, the president of Des Moines,
Iowa-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll of 1,000 adults.
It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points.
“People are unhappy, and they don’t see that there’s an obvious solution to this,” Selzer added.
Debt Concerns
Fifty-nine percent of respondents say the federal budget deficit
is growing, while only 10 percent say it’s shrinking and about a
quarter say it’s staying the same.
Long-term
debt continues to pile up, amounting to 73 percent of annual economic
output this year and projected to reach 100 percent of GDP by 2038,
according to a Sept. 17 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Obama has lost ground in the debate. Forty percent of respondents blame congressional Republicans for what’s gone wrong in Washington,
compared with the 38 percent who blame the president and congressional
Democrats, a statistically insignificant gap. Twenty-two percent say
they aren’t sure who to blame.
Washington’s Dysfunction
That’s
a shift from February, when Obama fared nine percentage points better
than Republicans when asked in the Bloomberg poll who deserved blame for
Washington’s dysfunction. Back then, independents split about evenly
over which party was at fault, with 36 percent naming Republicans and 35
percent calling out Obama. In the latest survey, they turned against
the Democrats. Forty-two percent of independents blamed Obama and his
congressional allies, compared with 34 percent who said congressional
Republicans were responsible.
“He’s continued what Bush did: say,
‘We’re just going to keep spending, keep spending, and things will turn
around,’” said Maureen Griffin, a 47-year-old homemaker from Enfield, Connecticut, tying Obama to former Republican President George W. Bush.
“They’re just not making choices. Both political parties are guilty of
that, but Obama’s the president and, eventually, we are going to default
if we don’t make cuts.”
Dennis Becker, a 78-year-old independent
who has backed Obama, said he’s “increasingly disappointed” with the
president’s posture on fiscal issues even though he says congressional
Republicans have been “hijacked by an extreme right-wing group” that
doesn’t represent voters.
Shutdown Avoidance
“He’s weak and I don’t think he’s provided sufficiently strong leadership on this,” Becker, a retiree living in St. James, North Carolina, said of Obama in a follow-up interview.
“I don’t think we’ll be able to avoid a shutdown,” Becker said. “Maybe that’s what it will take to get some compromise.”
At
the same time, the poll indicates the public’s appetite is waning for
revisions of the major drivers of the nation’s debt, including the
federal retirement and health programs for the elderly and disabled.
Fifty
percent say Medicare should be changed to substantially reduce the
deficit, compared with 41 percent who say it isn’t necessary -- a drop
from February, when respondents by an almost 2-to-1 ratio said a
Medicare rewrite is necessary. On Social Security,
respondents are split over the necessity of remaking the program,
compared with seven months ago, when they backed changes by 51 percent
to 39 percent.
Social Security
While majorities support
creating a sliding scale for both Medicare and Social Security so poorer
people get more benefits and the wealthier get fewer, the proportion
favoring such a change is declining. Fifty-three percent of Americans
back an income sliding scale for Social Security compared with 59
percent in February. On Medicare, support for such a change has fallen
four percentage points to 59 percent.
That may reflect the degree
to which the debate over funding Obamacare has overshadowed the
discussion over what steps should be taken to reduce the debt.
“It’s become back-burner and Obamacare is front-burner, along with the government shutdown,” Selzer said.
Speaking of Leadership: Poll: Americans Think Putin More Effective Than Obama on Syria
A recently released YouGov poll shows that Americans overwhelming believe Russian President Vladimir Putin has been far more effective during the Syrian chemical weapons crisis than President Obama.
In fact, it was not even close.
When asked, "Which world leader was most effective during the Syrian
chemical weapons crisis?", 49 percent of Americans gave the nod to Putin
while only 25 percent pointed to Obama.
Among Republicans, the ratio was 63 percent for Putin to only 7
percent for Obama. Democrats gave Obama just under 50 percent approval
while giving Putin 37 percent.
In response to, "Which world leader was the least effective during
the Syrian chemical weapons crisis?", Obama got 44 percent while Putin
only received 10 percent among those polled.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins
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