Survey Shows Americans Believe Cutting Taxes is Better "Stimulus" Approach
By Wide Margin, Americans Say Cutting Taxes is More Likely to Boost the Economy Than Government Spending Hikes
Washington,
Oct 22 -
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has announced she’ll bring legislation to the House floor before January that would increase government spending by hundreds of billions of dollars in an effort to provide “stimulus” to our flagging economy. But according to a newly released Fox poll:
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“[T]hree times as many voters think ‘cutting taxes’ (60 percent) is more likely to stimulate the economy and get the country out of recession than think ‘increasing government spending on programs’ will help the economy recover (20 percent).”
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The results are a boost for House Republicans, who have spoken out against Pelosi’s stimulus spending scheme and advocated a pro-growth approach to help working families and small businesses that emphasizes tax relief instead of government spending.
Asked which they think is more likely to stimulate the economy and get the country out of recession, 60 percent of say cutting taxes is more likely, while just 20 percent say increasing spending on programs is more likely, according to the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, taken October 20-21 among 900 likely voters. (“Neither” and “don’t know” were also options presented to respondents.) The poll has an error margin of plus or minus three points. The split is equally pronounced among independent voters, who favor tax cuts over increasing government spending by 54 percent to 17 percent, according to the poll.
In a letter last week to Speaker Pelosi, House Republican Leader John Boehner agreed Americans are hurting and deserve action from Congress on the economy, but warned families and small businesses “are not asking for pork-barrel spending masquerading as ‘stimulus.’” Instead, Boehner argued, Congress should take action on pro-growth, pro-taxpayer reforms that encourage job creation and investment, including a suspension of the capital gains tax and enactment of a comprehensive energy reform bill.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, argued for a pro-growth approach when Democrats brought Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to Capitol Hill earlier this week. As Ryan said:
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“If Congress is going to take action, it should be through fast-acting tax policy that boosts incentive to invest and create jobs. That is the growth dynamic that leads to a bigger economic pie. Short-term actions like stimulus do not grow the economic pie, they simply transfer funds from one part of the economy to another.”
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The Fox survey also indicates Americans strongly support the idea of a government spending freeze to get the federal budget under control, with 63 percent indicating it’s a good idea and just 29 percent indicating they believe it’s a bad idea. The full survey is available here.
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