Make The Other Guy Pay For It

This poll shows the broad problem with America right now: everybody agrees they want to lower the deficit, but nobody wants to make sacrifices.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said that they were not willing to pay more in taxes in order to reduce the deficit, and nearly as many said they were not willing for the government to provide fewer services in areas such as health care, education and defense spending.

Preference for deficit reduction ahead of spending to boost the economy peaks at 79 percent among Republicans, and also includes 60 percent of independents. It falls below half, to 43 percent, among Democrats.

Views of some solutions to the high deficit reflect underlying political philosophies, the poll found. Democrats are the most opposed to having fewer government services – 62 percent are against it, compared with 50 percent of independents and 45 percent of Republicans. Republicans, for their part, are broadly opposed to paying more in taxes – 69 percent are, compared with 56 percent of independents and 48 percent of Democrats.

In other words, Republicans want everyone else to lose services they don't want to pay for, just not their entitlements, tax cuts and loopholes. Democrats want everyone else to pay taxes to foot the bill for their services, just not raising taxes on the "middle class".

What we end up with is a California situation. Something's got to give here, and soon. Politicians are afraid of leveling with the people, and you're going to get more and more states going all one way (either massive tax hikes or massive service cuts) than asking everyone to pay.

It's going to take both, folks. It's the only fair way to do it.