A new Gallup Poll in effect says neither political party “won” The Big Budget Showdown of 2011 — but the American public backs the deal. And the poll finds there is little support in either political party for Rep. Paul Ryan’s idea of substantially overhauling Medicare:
– Six in 10 Americans approve of the 11th-hour federal budget agreement that congressional leaders reached in time to avert a government shutdown. Support for the deal made on Friday is somewhat higher among Democrats than among independents and Republicans, 71% vs. 60% and 58%, respectively.
Few Americans see a political winner in the outcome — with 5% saying it was a victory specifically for the Democrats, 8% specifically for the Republicans, and 20% for both. Rather, the majority of Americans, 56%, say the long-negotiated compromise was not a victory for either side.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe their own party was victorious — 16% vs. 6% — however, the majority of both groups believe neither side won.
The poll also reaffirms something that has long been known: Americans do not want anyone to tinker with Medicare:
Ryan’s budget proposes to completely restructure Medicare, replacing the current single-payer system administered by the government with an insurance premium subsidy system for seniors to buy private health insurance. Americans’ general reaction to changing Medicare — even when described as a way to control program costs — is not positive. Thirty-one percent would like to see either a complete overhaul of Medicare or major changes made to the program, while a combined 61% say the government should make only minor changes or not try to control Medicare costs.
Support for revamping Medicare is essentially no higher among Republicans than among Democrats, 34% vs. 30%, and Republicans are actually the more likely of the two groups to favor not controlling Medicare costs (33% vs. 21%).
Gallup offers some other polling data but here is its conclusion:
Americans mostly approve of Friday’s budget agreement that will keep the federal government running through September, but few say it was a victory for either party. Whether this is because of the messy politics involved in reaching it, or because the $38.5 million in spending cuts was not, in fact, a complete victory for either party, is not clear.
Republican and Democratic leaders are making considerable noise about the federal debt, and Americans share this concern. President Obama is expected to spell out his vision for reducing the national debt in a White House speech Wednesday afternoon, and Republicans are expected to press for dramatic deficit reduction in the looming negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. With a divided Congress, the challenge will be, once again, to strike a compromise between Democrats’ calls for higher taxes on the wealthy and Republicans’ calls for deeper domestic spending cuts. At this stage, the Democrats’ position seems to have the greater public appeal.
Look for President Barack Obama and the Democrats hammer Ryan’s Medicare plan change idea and try to hang it around the neck of the Republican Party and for many GOPers to either distance themselves from the idea as Ryan outlined it or to try to downplay the idea.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.