Poll: 53% Back Spending Cuts

From Investors Business Daily:

…A majority of the public wants Washington to stop the spending that has exploded the budget deficit. In a listing of top priorities for Congress, cutting the deficit by cutting spending came in No. 1, cited by 53%. (Fully 73%, including a majority of Democrats, said this is a “high priority.”)…

Now, fellow conservatives, this isn’t a blank check – the Democrats and their lapdogs in the MSM will demonize any cuts proposed or made, and the public will fall for at least some of this, but there is a clear understanding among the public that spending is way out of control. What we have to do as we cut is first find the most ridiculous spending to frame the debate about cutting, in and of itself, and then ensure that as we cut we are also putting together positive proposals to relieve the pressure on the American people.

There is so much utter BS in government spending that we can find a half dozen absurd things and use them as the poster boys of government waste – keep hammering home that when Democrats oppose cuts, what they are doing is opposing cuts to this sort of profligacy. But we can just be out there saying, “no!”; we also have to find things to say, “yes”, to.

In this, I think that a judicious balance of tax cuts plus moving money from less popular programs to more popular programs can help. The tax cuts are obvious – someone who is hurting financially will appreciate a little less being taken by Uncle Sam…but then we can also take money from, say, the Department of Commerce (finding something really stupid they are doing to eliminate) and putting it in to things like school aid or relief for home owners under the gun due to unemployment.

We hit them with the one-two punch: here’s your idiocy, Democrats and here is the great thing we want to do. We can win the debate all down the line and essentially force them to go along with us or, even better, make them defend the Big Government waste they have created over the decades (as we look for the stupid things to cut, we should be looking in to things very much favored by some left wing base constituencies – this will put pressure on the left to save their bacon, and they’ll turn about and pressure Democrats to keep the gravy train flowing).

Once we get the ball rolling on spending cuts coupled with priority changes we can then build up a strong constituency for more of the same. We have to do this, good people – the United States is bankrupt. We have until about 2015 to get our fiscal house in order or we’ll be forced in to sovereign default. Make no mistake about it, it is that bad. While the people presiding over the disaster will relentlessly assert that there is no danger of default, the facts are otherwise – we either balance our budget, or we crash very hard.

Now, to work.