Supportfor budget reforms along with a debt limit increase have come from the businessleaders and economists. Surveys of public opinion on possible reformshave been sparse, giving Congress a loophole for avoiding serious talks.
Respectedpolling firm “On Message, Inc” released a survey on behalf of Let Freedom Ring earlier this week highlightingthe public’s support for each of the three aspects of the “Cut, Cap, andBalance” plan.
Thefirst part of this comprehensive deficit elimination plan is to enact immediateand substantial cuts to our deficit. Sixty-nine percent of respondents saidthey favor cutting next year’s $1.2 trillion in half. There is a growingconsensus that our federal deficit is unsustainable. In 2008, just three shortyears ago, our annual deficit was 40 percent of our nation’s annual economic input.Today that figure has grown nearly two-fold to 70 percent.
Thepublic also strongly the second part of the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan –durable and enforceable statutory spending caps. According to the On Messagepoll, 66 percent of Americans favor capping federal spending at 18 percent ofGDP. Over the past 40 years federal revenues have fluctuated between 15 percentand 21 percent of GDP, averaging approximately 18 percent. A statutory cap atthis level would ensure that Washington’s spending habits are placed on a glidepath toward sustainability.
Of thethree prongs needed to avert a debt crisis, the poll shows that voters are mostsupportive of a strong Balanced Budget Amendment to our Constitution. Anincredible 81 percent of voters, including 74 percent of Democrats, favor theidea that the government should balance its budget every year.
The supportshould not come as a surprise to anyone. Households are forced to balance theirbudgets every day. When faced with limited resources, as almost every familyis, Americans save during the good economic times, prioritize purchases toensure they don’t spend more than they earn, and when things fall out ofbalance they make decisions on where they can cut back. The government shouldbe no different.
Together these poll results show that thereare no more excuses for failing to enact a Cut, Cap, and Balance strategy to permanentlysolve our debt dilemma. More than thirty conservative groups, including theNational Taxpayers Union, have banded together to ensure that Washington’sspending binge comes to an end. Yes, we realize that these solutions areaudacious, but the enormity of our fiscal problems demands them.
Thepeople are firmly behind Cut, Cap and Balance. It’s time for Washington to join them.