Majority Of Those Polled Say Cancel The Stimulus
by Big Dog on Jun 11, 2009 at 05:15 Opinion, Political
Rasmussen has a fresh new poll out that indicates 45% of Americans polled want the government to cancel the rest of the stimulus spending. 36% disagree with that and 20% don’t know. This is a drastic turn around from just 4 months ago when the massive package was passed.
At that time, my friend and frequent commenter, Adam told me that I was out of touch and that the majority supported this boondoggle. It has taken people a little bit of time to wake up to what many of us knew from the start but they are awakening. Now that they have had time to see how out of control spending is and how it will affect future generations they are not too happy with the package and want the government to end it.
The stimulus was not really a jobs creation package as much as it was a reason to spend money on countless pet projects, many of which will not create (or even save) one single job. There is spending for far too many items that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy and there are pay offs to political supporters. Most people polled do not think the stimulus will create jobs and most do not think it will be good for the economy:
However, only 31% of Americans believe the new government spending in the stimulus package creates new jobs. Forty-eight percent (48%) say the stimulus spending does not create jobs, and 21% are not sure.
Americans have mixed feelings about whether speeding up the new government spending in the stimulus package will help the economy. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say the increased spending will be good for the economy, but 44% say it will be bad. Eight percent (8%) think it will have no impact.
Rahm Emanuel said not to let a good crisis go to waste and that is the philosophy of this administration but the public is slowly catching on and they are seeing this for what it really is; spending for the sake of spending.
Unemployment continues to increase because the stimulus will not create many jobs, at least not enough to justify the expense.
What say you liberals who extolled the virtues of the stimulus and boasted about how people overwhelmingly supported it? Will you now have a change of heart because your fellow Americans want it ended?
You wanted me to climb on board because of majority support. Will you now jump off because the majority does not support?
Will you live by what you expect of others?
I expect to see Obama’s approval ratings start to decline in the near future.
Americans are waking up.
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: Obama, objections, stimulus, unemployment
There will always be the Obamazombies who will never concede that their little PC Ken doll could do anything wrong- they will defend him to the end, and the porkulus too- the rest of us will vote in people who have a realistic grasp on the world and what must be done.
The idea that Obama is flawless in his supporters eyes is just a fantasy cooked up by folks like you who are still mad that Obama’s support hasn’t declined rapidly enough to match your out of touch opinion on his policy decisions.
I won’t pretend Democrats are perfect but you live in a laughable world where things were apparently rosy until Democrats took over just a few short cycles ago and since then the country has been headed straight to hell.
Well things were certainly better before they took over. Bush warned about the collapse about 17 times and was told by people like Fwank that all was well. Maxine Waters said the same. Of course her husband is in banking and made lots of money…
Hussein’s numbers will decline- the question is how much damage he and hiz posse can do to this country before he is reined in. And no, do not live in a fantasy world where Republicans ride in on white horses, but your liberal destruction of America’s free market system has been going on since Carter and the CRA, accelerating during Clinton’s second term by the banking committee and Barney (Elmer Fudd) Frank, plus ACORN and Chris Dodd et al.
Dog –
It is beginning to look like people are awakening to the criminal misdeeds being foisted upon our country by hopey and his merry band of miscreants. Now if only the republicans in the house and senate would make a trip to Oz for a little heart …
I won’t stop supporting the stimulus because opinion has shifted and I don’t recall telling you to support it because of public opinion in the first place.
For some reason every time I quote a poll you seem to think I’m asking you to change your opinion because the public disagrees and that is hardly the truth. Still 9 times out of 10 you will say something along the lines of “I don’t base my opinion on polls.” Right, but I don’t believe I’ve ever suggested you should.
As you noted in this entry though I did say you were out of touch in your lack of support and I still think you are.
You continue to insist nothing should have been done and you look for polls to back up that idea. This can’t be further from the truth and few, if any, mainstream economists looking at these events agree with you. That is why you were out of touch then and still out of touch now.
If we polled on whether or not we needed a stimulus to start with I’d wager you’ll still find strong support and you’ll still see you are out of touch. But consumer confidence is up this month along with the stock markets. People are feeling better about the future and that will be reflected in answers about the need for further stimulus. But it is too early to be so rosy.
First of all the economy is showing only signs up improvement, nothing for sure. Job numbers have leveled off but will probably take a big hit with the car company business this month.
Second, even when recovery starts most of the money is geared toward softening the impact and shortening the recovery time, not simply getting us into recovery and then ending. That is why it means nothing to say most of the money hasn’t been spent and the economy is recovering already so let’s just cancel the stimulus. The money is stretched out to stimulate growth over time during recovery.
You say you understand what it means to be a lagging indicator but apparently not since you again suggest that increases in unemployment now means the stimulus is not working. We are still seeing the job losses adding up from the insane declines in GDP in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 but that is leveling off.
Still, there is no doubt support for the stimulus has declined. The question remains of how much. Rasmussen is known to have polled much lower on support than other pollsters in the past.
Unfortunately for my argument I can find no other pollsters checking on the stimulus at this date so it’s hard to tell if Rasmussen still has the same kind noticeable difference. We can talk about that later maybe if more come out.
Expect a further rise in unemployment and decline in support for Obama because of it. But eventually we’ll start to see job creation pick up to match a rebound in economic activity and then we’ll have a better perspective on whether or not the stimulus is having an impact on jobs.
Whether Obama’s numbers will rebound is another question.
ADM: “I can find no other pollsters checking on the stimulus at this date”>>
DAR
This has a stimulus poll from mid April.
http://www.pollingreport.com/budget.htm
See also the other questions polled on that page. Interesting.
D.
———————
“Thinking about the stimulus package that was approved by Congress in February to help improve the economy, do you think that the stimulus package has helped bring about improvements to the economy, did even more damage to the economy than would have happened otherwise, had no real effect on the condition of the economy, or it’s too early to tell?”
Helped: 10%
Did More Damage: 18%
Had No Real Effect: 14%
Too Early To Tell: 57%
Unsure: 1%
4/16-20/09
I’m with the too early, but it is a question that can never be answered with certainty.
Thomas Jefferson said Government governs best when it governs least.
This is not what Jefferson had in mind. What has been done is unconstitutional on several levels, and completely ignores the free market principles of this nation in favor of a viewpoint that has been shown time and again to not work, but then I do not expect Hussein or anyone in his cabinet to have studied history.
His numbers wil not rebound- all those Chrysler workers at the dealerships now out of work, and soon the GM dealer employees- I guess that he will say he is reducing unemployment by doing this just as he has said he is reducing the deficit by quadrupling it. Same logic.
It is not proven that Thomas Jefferson ever said that. In a similar note many of the popular Jefferson quotes dealing with his distaste for big government are also incorrectly attributed to the man. He did indeed say on a similar note:
While his sentiments certainly lean toward less government, Jefferson was not so agreeable to this idea you have about the free market as many of his falsely attributed quotes would have you believe.
BS, Adam- Thomas Jefferson was well known for the idea of small, less intrusive government, and were he alive now, would probably be in favor of a new revolution against these unconstitutional maneuverings Hussein is doing. You just watch- even you unless you are a government- sucking POS will soon realize that you are wrong and I am right on this problem. Your beloved Hussein is getting us in real deep, and it’s going to take a long time to set things right, time I will fill by listening to your apologies.
As Adam said, the quote is bogus.
“…we have not found this particular statement in his writings.”
Means… it goes on the bogus pile.
No actually it means you haven’t found it.
Which means you have no basis whatsoever for saying he said it.
I believe that Jefferson was saying that the natural progress is this and that we needed to ensure it did not happen to us. He was warning about how government becomes big and that liberty is lost when it does.. The last part of the quote is:
“As yet our spirits are free”
In other words, we have our liberty because we still have a small government. You are using it to say Jefferson said it was natural for government to get bigger and that shows support. He was giving a warning. This was in a letter to Colonel Carrington and it deals with the adoption of the Amendments to the Constitution. Jefferson discussed the first and then moved to the second (which are not the ones we have today they were not adopted). The second dealt with rotating the Presidency and the Senate so that they did not stay in power too long. He was worried we would become what we had left. Here is the portion of the letter with the proper context:
Read it carefully and you will see what he was really saying. You can find it and many more of his writings Here.
It’s not just whether a government stimulus can create jobs, but also the whether the government can correctly determine what the economy needs (which the free market does better). As an anaolgy imagine an ocean tide going in & out just like economic booms and recessions. So the government borrows a lot of money and then builds a bunch of roads & houses below the high tide mark. Guess what happens when the tide rises?