QOTD: President Obama
by digby
Obama in Jerusalem:
"Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand they do."
I suppose that's true? But how do we explain the fact that he and a bunch of Democrats are willing to take a huge risk by doing things the people explicitly demand they not do.
Like this, for instance:
Social Security:
Harris Interactive. February 6-13, 2012.
- “Only 12% of the public want to see a cut in Social Security payments”.
KPC Poll. March 9, 2012.
- “Over two thirds of Americans agree that the government has a role in providing a safety net for their personal financial security, including Social Security, Medicare, and protection from fraud.”
CNN/ORC Poll. September 23-25, 2011.
- “Would you say that the Social Security system has been good for the country, has been bad for the country, or has had no effect on the country?” 79% answered good.
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Health Care. Sept 8-11, 2011.
- Voters overwhelmingly approve of raising the cap on Social Security wages above $106,000 (71% in favor, 21% oppose).
- Raising retirement age is opposed (65% oppose, 30% in favor).
The Washington Post/Bloomberg News Poll, October 6-9, 2011
- 83% oppose reducing Social Security benefits in order to reduce the nation’s budget deficit.
Pew Research Center, June 15-19, 2011
- 60% support keeping benefits as they are under Social Security as being more important than reducing the budget deficit.
The Washington Post/ABC News Poll, March 10-13, 2011
- 53% support Collecting Social Security taxes on all the money a worker earns, rather than taxing only up to about $107,000 of annual income.
- 57% oppose raising the retirement age from 66 to 67.
- 52% oppose further reducing the benefits paid to people who retire early. For instance, people who retire at age 62 would get 63% of their full benefits, rather than the current 70%
- 66% oppose reducing benefits for future enrollees.
Gallup Poll, January 14-16, 2011
- 64% oppose spending cuts to Social Security.
Pulse Opinion Research for The Hill Poll - Social Security, February 9, 2011
- 48% oppose raising the Social Security age for people born after 1960.
- 67% believe Social Security taxes should be paid on all or most worker income
Lake Research Partners, October 31 to November 2, 2010
- 82% oppose cutting Social Security benefits in order to reduce the debt.
- 67% oppose cutting Social Security to make the program more solvent in the long term.
- 63% oppose reducing Social Security benefits for people earning more than $60,000 or more when they retire.
- 69% oppose raising the Social Security retirement age to 69.
- 66% support enacting Social Security taxes on wages about $106,800 (the Pay Roll Tax Cap) to make the program more solvent.
The Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll, February 24-28, 2011
- 49% believe it will not be necessary to cut spending on Social Security to reduce the national deficit. (22% said Yes and 27% had no opinion).
- 77% believe cutting Social Security to help reduce the budget deficit is mostly or totally unacceptable.
Bloomberg News Poll, March 4-7, 2011
- 54% oppose raising the age of eligibility for Social Security to 69.
NBC News/Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2011
- 58% want tax increases on the wealthy as part of a deficit solution vs 36%.
Pew Research Poll, June 15-19
- 60% say Keep Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are vs 32% say change them to reduce deficits.
Associated Press-GfK Poll, March 5-9, 2011
- 54% believe it is possible to balance the budget without cutting spending on Social Security
Of course, the president doesn't ever have to ask for the people's vote again. The rest of those poor schmucks in the congress do, however. I wonder how they've calculated that risk?
h/t to @chrislhayes