Editor’s note: This is another in a series of “WND/WENZEL POLLS” conducted exclusively for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.
 Barack Obama |
Three in four registered voters in America, including a whopping 65 percent of the self-identified Democrats, whose party controls the White House and U.S. Senate, say Washington “immediately” should stop spending more than it takes in.
The results are from a new poll from the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies. It was conducted Dec. 5-7 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.26 percentage points.
In answer to the question, “Do you agree or disagree that government be forced to immediately operate within its means – that is, to immediately stop spending more money than it collects in tax revenue?” 55.7 percent of the respondent registered voters strongly agreed and another 20.1 percent were in the “somewhat agree” category.
That included 83 percent of the GOP and 78 percent of the independents.
Those who disagreed with the statement totaled only 18 percent.
The poll revealed that the belief Washington should live within its means was endorsed across political spectrums – from very liberal to very conservative, by both men and women, all racial categories, all geographic categories, all age groups and all income levels.
It also aligned with another question on the poll, where 59 percent of all respondents agreed with the statement that Congress made a mistake when it approved an increase in the nation’s debt limit in August.
Forty-one-point-one percent of the respondents strongly agreed and another 17.9 percent agreed somewhat. Only 28 percent disagreed.
While the percentage of support for that position was lowest among Democrats, even there one in four voters said they “strongly agreed” that Congress blew that decision. Among the GOP, the perspective was endorsed by 72 percent and among independents, 60 percent.
Given the strong support for a living-within-your-means government, the next question proved a little surprising. Only 60 percent said capitalism is the best possible economic system.
“A fascinating data point in the survey revealed that just 43 percent of Democrats believe that capitalism is the best economic system in the world today,” noted Fritz Wenzel, chief of Wenzel Strategies.
“The result is a plurality among Democrats: 28 percent of Democrats said socialism is the best system, while 11 percent said communism is best and another 17 percent said they were unsure on the question,” he continued. “Among political independents, 62 percent said capitalism is the best system, but 23 percent of independents said they think socialism is superior.
“Even among Republicans, support for capitalism, while strong, was not emphatic, as just 74 percent said it was the best economic system. Another 12 percent of Republicans preferred socialism, and 2 percent favored communism. Among progressives, 51 percent said they believed that either socialism or communism is a better economic system than capitalism,” he said.
The poll also revealed that 23 percent of taxpayers blame “big government” the most for barriers to growing the U.S. economy, and that was in addition to the 13 percent who cited the uncertainty over taxes and debt and the 8.5 percent who cited government regulation separately. Other categories were limited energy (7.3 percent), high energy prices (3.7 percent) and unions (5.3 percent).
Big business and capitalism was cited by just under 21 percent as the single biggest barrier to a growing economy.
“In terms of the barriers keeping the American economy from expansion, 36 percent blamed a combination of ‘big government’ and ‘uncertainty over taxes and the federal debt’ as the biggest problems. While 24 percent blamed ‘big government,’ another 13 percent cited uncertainty,” Wenzel said.
WND reported during the summer of 2011 that voters wanted Washington to stop spending away the future even then.
And at that time, a stunning 4 in 10 believed if the debt ceiling wasn’t raised, President Obama would punish the public with the way he would allocate the hundreds of billions of dollars available. Congress later voted to give Obama the borrowing authority he demanded.
But even then, 54.4 percent of the respondents believed the nation’s fiscal situation should be fixed with cuts in government spending.
Wenzel warned then the controversy would be a key issue in the 2012 presidential and congressional campaigns.
At that time, a startling 52.6 percent said they would be willing to see “entire agencies and departments of the federal government shut down” in order to cut government spending.
After a weeks-long war during the summer of 2011 over giving Obama the authority to borrow and spend more money, Congress approved a debt hike to $15.194 trillion, but there are some analysts now who say that may have given the U.S. as little as a few months of additional borrowing power.
That would mean the same fight could be looming again as early as the first part of 2012.
See detailed results of survey questions:
In your opinion, what is the single biggest barrier to a growing U.S. economy?
