If newly empowered Republicans in Congress intend, as they say, to do the “will of the people,” you will see large federal deficits from now to eternity.
That’s because the public has no “will,” at least not on this topic.
A hot-off-the-press Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that while we all favor cutting the federal deficit in the abstract, we strongly oppose any plan that would deny us federal benefits or require higher taxes.
About 70 percent of the respondents were opposed to cutting Medicare, Social Security and defense in order to reduce the budget.
A smaller majority, 60 percent, oppose raising tax revenue by boosting the gasoline tax, limiting home mortgage deductions or increasing corporate taxes.
In short, we all believe in sacrifice, so long as some other guy is doing the sacrificing.
Last week, the co-chairs of the president’s deficit reduction panel came out with sweeping recommendations for spending cuts and tax increases to trim about $3.8 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years.
According to a Wall Street Journal story on the poll, Republicans were more negative than Democrats on the share-the-pain plan.
Only 17 percent of Republicans thought it was the right idea, while 28 percent of Democrats favored it. To be fair, 30 percent of respondents had no opinion or didn’t know about the plan.
Republican Mary Bonde of Key Largo, Fla., quoted in the WSJ story, summed it up well: She opposes cutting spending or raising taxes.
Which begs the question: What else is there?
While fraud is a problem, particularly in contracting and federal medical programs, does anyone seriously think we are going to weed out $3.8 trillion of it over the next decade?
It is more likely that the deficit commission report will be received with modest fanfare and then be disregarded in the face of partisan bickering.
Campaigning is about telling people what they want to hear. Governing is about telling them the truth.
Getting our financial house in order will be painful, and we must all share the burden.
Until Congress finds the will to make uncomfortable compromises, we will not solve this problem.
editorialboard@sunjournal.com
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