A new CBS poll finds most Americans believe they will feel the sequester and both sides will get blamed for the situation but Republicans are being blamed more — as partisans reliably blame the other party:
A CBS News Poll conducted as the sequester cuts were about to begin finds that most (53 percent) percent say they personally will be affected by the cuts in the sequester. In addition, most Americans want to cut spending and raise taxes to reduce the deficit.
Once again polls find Americans DO want to raise taxes — which puts the GOP (again) going against the grain of a)polls and b)election results.
More Americans blame the Republicans in Congress more for the difficulty in reaching agreement on spending cuts by the deadline. But both sides are urged to compromise.
But these numbers are not whoppingly blaming Republicans:
There is plenty of blame to go around for the inability to reach agreement on deficit reduction by the March 1 deadline. Thirty-eight percent of Americans place more blame on the Republicans in Congress for the failure, while 33 percent blame President Obama and the Democrats in Congress more. Nineteen percent volunteer that they blame both sides.
And this is not surprising: when it comes to partisans, they blame the other side:
For the most part, America’s partisans point their fingers at the other party. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans blame the president and Democrats in Congress, while 72 percent of Democrats blame the Republicans in Congress.
Many Americans expect the budget cuts in the sequester to have a negative impact on the country overall. 46 percent expect the cuts will be bad for the country, because it forces cuts to important programs and services, while 34 percent expect them to be good for the country, because it forces the government to cut spending.
And, once again, we see how politics has now created two totally different world views:
There are differences by party. Forty-six percent of Republicans expect the sequester to have a positive effect on the country, while 60 percent of Democrats think the impact will be negative.Women (57 percent) are more likely than men (50 percent) to expect to be affected by the cuts in the sequester. Those with lower incomes are also more apt to think they will be impacted.
Generally, a majority of Americans prefers to reduce the deficit by both raising taxes and cutting federal spending, a finding similar to last month’s. A third thinks that spending cuts alone, as Republican leaders in Congress propose, is the best way to do that.
Partisanship colors views on this question. Among most Republicans, spending cuts alone are the preferred method to reduce the deficit (55 percent). Most Democrats (74 percent) and independents (55 percent) prefer a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.
When considering spending cuts, 63 percent of Americans – including majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike – say that those cuts should be made without use of the sequester. Eighteen percent want them made through the sequester, and 13 percent want no cuts at all.
Most Democrats (65 percent ) and Republicans (62 percent) want cuts made without the sequester. Still, more than a quarter of Republicans (27 percent) support cuts made via the sequester.
This suggests: (1)The Republicans are not in sync with the electorate (2)partisanship and partisan perceptions are deeply embedded (3)more gridlock with each partisan side has an almost religious perception of political events, their meaning, and impact.
UPDATE: More perspective from First Read:
*** The sequester’s political radioactivity: Want another reason why President Obama waved the white flag in the budget battle over the sequester, as well as the possibility of a government shutdown? A new CBS poll shows that Americans — by just five percentage points — place more blame on congressional GOPers (38%) for the difficulty in reaching a deal than on Obama (33%). In other words, Obama was only going to get hurt in a protracted battle with Republicans. Sure the GOP would be hurt more, but Obama would be dragged down. Our NBC/WSJ poll from last week seemed to suggest that. And this CBS survey backs that up. Watch for more of the White House pivot on to new topics later this week.
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.