Posted on 12/13/2012 8:52:17 AM PST by Qbert
A new poll finds that a majority of voters would blame both President Obama and congressional Republicans equally if efforts to find a deficit deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” fail.
Fifty-six percent surveyed in a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll say both sides would be responsible if a compromise is not reached. Nineteen percent would blame Obama and Democrats only, with 24 percent saying the GOP would be at fault.
Those numbers could suggest a shift in public opinion as both parties work to find a way to prevent tax rate hikes and automatic spending cuts from taking effect in January. Prior surveys have shown voters more likely to blame congressional Republicans if talks fail.
A Washington Post/Pew Research survey released last week found 53 percent would blame Republicans, with 27 faulting the president. Twelve percent in that poll said blame should be equally apportioned. And a CNN/ORC poll last month found 45 percent saying Republicans would be responsible if there was no accord, with 34 tabbing Obama.
But voters in the new WSJ/NBC poll also give the president a strong review in talks, with Obama holding a 53 percent approval rating. Forty-three percent disapprove of the president’s overall job performance.
On the issue of taxes, 59 percent say Obama received a mandate in the election to eliminate Bush-era tax rates for those making over $250,000 a year, with 36 percent saying he didn’t receive such a mandate.
Republicans want to extend the expiring tax rates across the board, but Obama has said he will reject any deal that does not raise rates on the top 2 percent of income earners.
Voters are also split on the likelihood that a deal will be reached, with 48 percent pessimistic about the outlook and 48 percent optimistic.
The poll’s findings come as both sides remain deadlocked in talks.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Obama earlier this week exchanged a new round of offers, and staff for both sides are continuing to meet to hammer out an agreement. But publicly, leaders are suggesting that there is a long road to finding a deal.
On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) warned lawmakers that they should be prepared to continue working after Christmas.
Both sides have sought to rally public support for their position in talks, with Obama hitting the road, visiting autoworkers in Detroit earlier this week.
The poll was conducted from Dec. 6 to 9 and has a 3-point margin of error.
and the “s” and “a”.
Too many Americans are dumber than a bag of rocks.
And therein lies the problem with most political discussions today. The MSM, in the form of NBC-BS, CBS-BS, ABC-BS and CNN-BS, have become so ingrained as the purveyors of truth in America that if Brian Williams told us that the sun was going to rise in the West tomorrow, about 70% of Americans would believe him. And the same MSM who are about 95% leftists will also tell you that Fox News is a bunch of lying right-wing nuts who are anything but a "news" organization.
Who cares????? Let it fail. It is going to worse the longer these pinheads in government put it off.
I blame Obama totally. 110%.
“Can you imagine what would happen if Obama was asked to answer basic questions about the arithmetic of his “proposals” out in the open? If Obama was asked to name some changes to entitlement programs that he preferred? “Uh..uh..uh”...”
Of course, something like this actually happened during the health care debate. Paul Ryan schooled Obama on the idiocy of Obamacare and found himself completely ignored. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPxMZ1WdINs
I saw this on cable yesterday too.
This is some good news, I think it is because there are no GOP members on TV saying “Shut it down” this time around.
Bohner looks like he is really upset about this on TV too, HA-HA,.
Will see how it plays out. Naturally I am not optimistic.
"Of course, something like this actually happened during the health care debate. Paul Ryan schooled Obama on the idiocy of Obamacare and found himself completely ignored."
You're right only to some extent- yes the media and the Dems ignored Ryan's brilliant attacks... but even most of the public got it (along with help from the Tea Party rallies). Obamacare was extremely unpopular when it was passed, and the Dems get demolished in 2010.
We have to take these leftists head on- and publicly- and keep drilling our points until the public understands.
Some of our enemedia ring leaders will probably have to end up like Julius Streicher before the problem gets corrected here.
Why doesn't anyone say that what will happen if Congress does nothing is that we will revert back to the “Clinton-Era Tax Rates” for all.
They were Clinton rates, so they must be "fair", right?
That would be much more accurate...:^(
This is good news. Hopefully the ignorants will get mad and not vote for anyone.
this poll = the MSM assessing just how much work they have to do to spin this in Barry’s favor.
Even if a poll response represents good polling practices, and this one might qualify, it's tricky to translate that directly into a budget deal. As you yourself have pointed out, although some polls show that budget cuts should be the #1 priority, nobody, including the GOP, can find any significant cuts that are popular.
If polls asked "Would you be in favor of raising taxes by eliminating deductions X, Y, and Z," then "raising taxes" in that sense might not be so popular. Maybe that is what the GOP is trying to get at, but I doubt that would work very well, since, for one thing, polls don't ask the question like that.
Yes, that is an improvement.
I can only guess that they are trying to get O to go along with future cuts in medicare because they believe a Republican POTUS could never do it,
And they don't like raising taxes and figure the worse the deficit gets the more appealing raising taxes will look.
So they let O spend now, they make a compromise deal on taxes to get cuts in our future entitlements. Is that the plan????
I see no reason to believe that Bohner will beat O with his strategy, whatever that is,
and I am not thrilled about me going on O care at 65 (if I want to retire then) in return for continuing spending now and a deal on taxes now, and Obama looking like a big bi-partision success with Bohners help.
Just to be painfully repetitive:
But what if Republicans send two bills to the Senate, one extending cuts <$250K (for everyone) and one >$250K ?
Then they are not :
1) Raising taxes, or
2) Holding the middle class hostage to the rich
Then its Dems that raised those taxes.
Or 3 bills, if they have time: 1) restoring all the GWB tax cuts, 2) tax cuts for everyone below (some number between 250K and $2M), and 3 (if necessary) Tax cuts for those <=250K and blame O. Bill #1 would be to make those pesky tea partiers happy, so maybe they Boner could get some votes for other bills.
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