Last week, Gallup released a fascinating survey:
While fewer than half of Americans say they favor raising taxes or cutting benefits to address the economic problems they foresee from the government’s major entitlement programs, 62% do support one approach or the other. Specifically, 12% favor both options, 30% favor a tax increase but not benefit cuts, and 20% favor benefit cuts but not a tax increase. Still, the data show that there is little consensus on how to address a problem most Americans see looming, and more than one-third of Americans (35%) oppose both options.
To the 35% of Americans who oppose both options: Let’s talk. I want to clarify some things for you. It could be that you know something I don’t, and I would very much like to have an open and frank exchange.
To the 12% of Americans who favor raising taxes and cutting benefits: You guys are on the right track. But we need to work out the balance between tax hikes and benefit cuts. And what kind of tax hikes do you have in mind? If you want growth-friendly taxes, that’s one thing. If your main objective is to soak the rich, that’s another. But I’m confident that we can figure something out. Then again, you guys are only 12% of Americans. You need to pitch a bigger tent.
To the 20% of Americans who favor cutting benefits but not raising taxes: I think of you guys as my people, and I think that there is a lot that we can do on the spending side. In fact, I think we can do things on the spending side that will actually make public services better at lower cost. Yet I want to encourage you guys to at least try to work with the aforementioned 12%. They’re not crazy, and I’m guessing that they’d embrace a plan that cuts the overall cost of entitlements while maintaining a strong safety net.
To the 30% of Americans who favor raising taxes but not cutting benefits: I assume you guys are thinking that the tax increases will be imposed on folks making more than you. Some of you are probably cool with a slight tax increase for yourselves. But I really think we need to talk about the size of the tax increases we’d need to fund business-as-usual entitlement spending. Part of me thinks that we’re not going to have a very constructive exchange, but another part of me thinks that you might not fully appreciate the fix that Medicare and Medicaid are in, and how Medicare contributes to the bigger problem of cost growth in our overall health system. We’re starting out from a position of mutual distrust. But I think we all want to do what’s best for the country, and in particular for the most vulnerable people in the country. We can work something out.