Shocker: Americans skeptical about Obama’s “fiscal discipline”
June 25th, 2009 by Rightwing Czar at 10:53 amUh, you think?
The president’s health care reform plan alone, without an agreement on how to pay for it, would pile on more than $1 trillion over the next decade to the already enormous 2009 deficit which is estimated at $1.8 trillion. But Obama is adamant that his plan must be “deficit neutral.”“Like energy, this is legislation that must and will be paid for. It will not add to our deficits over the next decade. We will find the money through savings and efficiencies within the health care system,” he said on Tuesday.Despite Obama making this pledge over and over again in past weeks, a series of recent polls indicate that Americans aren’t convinced:- A New York Times/CBS News poll shows 60 percent of Americans do not believe the president has a strategy to reduce the deficit.- A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll says 58 percent of Americans want the president to make controlling the deficit a higher priority than a speedy economic recovery.- A Pew Research Center poll indicates 55 percent of Americans are optimistic the president will eventually reduce the budget deficit, but that’s a smaller number than the 61 percent of people who approve of him generally.The president’s health care reform plan alone, without an agreement on how to pay for it, would pile on more than $1 trillion over the next decade to the already enormous 2009 deficit which is estimated at $1.8 trillion. But Obama is adamant that his plan must be “deficit neutral.”
“Like energy, this is legislation that must and will be paid for. It will not add to our deficits over the next decade. We will find the money through savings and efficiencies within the health care system,” he said on Tuesday.
If there’s a way to stop government-run healthcare it’s going to be the cost. A public plan would drive private insurance companies out of business and turn our health care system into an inefficient mammoth – like almost every other agency the federal government runs. But even worse, we’d be paying out the wazoo for it – and maybe it is on that point that Americans will realize it’s not such a good idea. “Free healthcare for everyone” doesn’t sound so appealing once you realize “free” means “payed for by your tax dollars.”
The angst against the spending isn’t just about health care though:
Despite Obama making this pledge over and over again in past weeks, a series of recent polls indicate that Americans aren’t convinced:
- A New York Times/CBS News poll shows 60 percent of Americans do not believe the president has a strategy to reduce the deficit.
- A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll says 58 percent of Americans want the president to make controlling the deficit a higher priority than a speedy economic recovery.
- A Pew Research Center poll indicates 55 percent of Americans are optimistic the president will eventually reduce the budget deficit, but that’s a smaller number than the 61 percent of people who approve of him generally.
Obama doesn’t have any realistic plan to stop spending money save raising taxes, and we can hope that the 2010 elections won’t forgive him for it.