Only 19% Favor New Government Stimulus Spending To Jump Start Economy…

Via Rasmussen:

President Obama is calling for $200 billion in economic stimulus spending in his proposal to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” but few voters believe increased government spending will stimulate the economy. Most think tax cuts are the better way to go.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 19% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the government should increase federal spending to help stimulate the economy. Sixty-two percent (62%) oppose new spending as an economic stimulus. Nineteen percent (19%) are undecided.

This should serve as a lesson to Republicans that not all liberal narratives win out in the end. Obama’s near trillion dollar stimulus of 3/09 was such an abject failure, no amount of government sanctioned propaganda could redeem it. Nobody but hardcore leftists wants a Stimulus II.

That’s why I’m arguing that Republicans should agree to a modest tax hike on upper income earners to avoid going over the fiscal cliff, which would be devastating to the economy and to our national security.  Obama is playing a political poker game, and it’s great fun for him, because he has all the cards. He doesn’t care a whit  if we go over the cliff because he knows Republicans will get blamed for it and by demanding that Republicans agree to his tax increase,  he believes  the Republican party will be fractured.

That’s why Republican leaders must make clear that any increase agreed to was made under duress. As I said, the other day — make sure the public understands that Republicans are giving the President his tax increase only because it’s what the people who voted for him wanted, and because it’s better than the alternative – going over the cliff –  not because it is the right thing to do. No smiles, and public pats on the back. They will need to be sore losers and tell everyone that hiking taxes on anyone while the economy is struggling is a bad idea, and they should walk out rather than vote for the shit sandwich.

As Keith Koffler proposed:

Republicans have a lot of leverage, as I’ve written. But they cannot move Obama on this, because otherwise Obama is nothing. What they should do is offer to raise rates by the smallest amount imaginable, offering him the tiniest fig leaf to cover his nakedness on deficit reduction. A tax increase is a tax increase, after all, whether you do it through rate adjustments or ending deductions. And it won’t destroy the Republican Party.

Not giving Obama a small rate increase would plunge the nation over the cliff, resulting in a second recession and massive pain for the country.

Later on down the road, when the double dip recession hits, yes – people like Paul Krugman will say it’s the Republicans’ fault because they didn’t agree to a larger tax hike. It won’t fly.

Just like the argument that the stimulus didn’t work because Republicans didn’t let Obama have an even bigger one, it will fail to convince any but the most die hard leftists..  Obama owns the failure of his Stimulus, just like he’ll own the failure of his tax the rich scheme, which Republicans only agreed to to avoid going over the cliff.

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers