Balancing The Budget

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Americans say they want to balance the budget and have lower taxes - how do you say having their cake and eating it too?  As I pointed out here conservatives talk about cutting spending but they really are not in favor of cutting anything. 

A recent poll shows that Americans still don't want to cut anything.

Americans want Congress to bring down a federal budget deficit that many believe is �dangerously out of control,� only under two conditions: minimize the pain and make the rich pay.

The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense. They want to maintain subsidies for farmers and tax breaks like the mortgage-interest deduction. And they�re against an increase in the gasoline tax.

So what are they in favor of that would reduce the deficit?

The one place Americans are willing to see sacrifice is in the wallets of the wealthy and Wall Street.

While they say they strongly support balancing the budget over the next 20 years, when offered a list of more than a dozen possible spending cuts or tax increases, majorities opposed every one of them except imposing a bigger burden on the rich.

Americans hate the bankers and Wall Street and are not in a mood to suffer any more than they are already.  This puts the politicians of both parties between a rock and a hard place - do you go against the voters or against the people that fund your campaigns.  I imagine they are looking at the protests in Europe and wondering if it could happen here.