45 Percent of Americans Want to Cancel the Rest of the Stimulus

Katherine Mangu-Ward | June 10, 2009

Americans get fed up with inflated claims about the power of the stimulus, collectively say "600,000 new jobs? Sure pal. You going to toss in some prime real estate in Florida, too, Obama?" Rasmussen reports:

Only 31% of Americans believe the new government spending in the stimulus package creates new jobs. Forty-eight percent (48%) say the stimulus spending does not create jobs, and 21% are not sure. 

Thus, in an unusual display of logical consistency, voters are turning against the whole stimulus idea.

Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans say the rest of the new government spending authorized in the $787-billion economic stimulus plan should now be canceled. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 36% disagree and 20% are not sure.

According to news reports, only $36 billion of the stimulus plan had been spent as of late May.

Just 20% of adults say the tax cuts included in the stimulus plan should be canceled while 55% disagree. The stimulus plan includes $288 billion in tax cuts.

Via Mary Katharine Ham

Comments

|6.10.09 @ 1:57PM|#

The Republicans ought to start a campaign to cancel the rest of the stimulus. If the Democrats say no we still need it, then they have to admit the economy is a mess and they haven't done anything to fix it.

Spoonman|6.10.09 @ 1:58PM|#

If the LP didn't completely blow, it would be borrowing money to run a huge ad campaign right now.

Mike M.|6.10.09 @ 2:05PM|#

Contrary to what some of their apologists here would like us to believe, Obama and the Democrats lied and that stimulus money was never intended to stimulate the economy now. It's money to be used to help buy votes for the midterm election campaign next year.

JB|6.10.09 @ 2:06PM|#

A retarded monkey can fool some of the people some of the time, but many more are wising up.

KyleG|6.10.09 @ 2:07PM|#

So that's why the media has been fapping so much over the mighty stimulus lately.

*Or maybe they have ben all along. Fuck it.

Tim Cavanaugh|6.10.09 @ 2:12PM|#

If the LP didn't completely blow, it would be borrowing money selling gold to run a huge ad campaign right now.

Chad|6.10.09 @ 2:19PM|#

Of course, 80% of Americans can't calculate compound interest.

Is there any reason to believe they can comprehend trillion dollar budgets?

Paul|6.10.09 @ 2:19PM|#

Only 31% of Americans believe the new government spending in the stimulus package creates new jobs.

So... roughly 70% of Americans do believe that government money transfers from productive to non-productive sectors of the economy are creating jobs? I'm not sure this is something to celebrate.

Spoonman|6.10.09 @ 2:23PM|#

Tim: Since I assume the LP doesn't own Fort Knox, I assume I'm missing a joke?

The Angry Optimist|6.10.09 @ 2:27PM|#

Uh, Chad? Non-sequitur much?

I love when liberals invoke "the will of the people" on things they like but are willing to go all "nanny state" when the people have the gall, the audacity to assert their will in a way liberals don't like.

Ditto conservatives, but at least conservatives have never pretended that democracy is the end-all be-all.

Chad, being able to calculate compound interest has nothing to do with the body politic determining that we're spending too much. A fucking ten year old can tell you that you cannot spend money you don't have. you can try to defer to "experts" all you like to vitiate commonsense, but at the end of the day you're still wrong.

Tim Cavanaugh|6.10.09 @ 2:30PM|#

FYI, the GAO in APR. EST'D that ARRA had committed to pay only $49B by SEPT 30.

Hour-ago details on the Transportation end of ARRA from Pro Publica.

Note that in most cases, no debt had been issued yet. So canceling the rest of ARRA would save us a lot more than $700 billion and change. And today there's been another 10-year treasury bust to the tune of $19 billion. So declining demand for government debt may end up coming to the rescue.

Tim Cavanaugh|6.10.09 @ 2:32PM|#

Boil down that last message:

DON'T BUY BONDS! YOU'RE JUST ENCOURAGING THEM!

|6.10.09 @ 2:33PM|#

45 Percent of Americans Want to Cancel the Rest of the Stimulus

I'm dumbfounded that 45% of Americans agree with me. On anything. Like I've said before, Americans are a stupid people.

Alan Vanneman|6.10.09 @ 2:35PM|#

"Only 31% of Americans believe the new government spending in the stimulus package creates new jobs. Forty-eight percent (48%) say the stimulus spending does not create jobs, and 21% are not sure."

On the other hand, 99% of Americans think the last seven presidential candidates of the Libertarian Party have been dorks.

Rex Rhino|6.10.09 @ 2:35PM|#

The Republicans ought to start a campaign to cancel the rest of the stimulus. If the Democrats say no we still need it, then they have to admit the economy is a mess and they haven't done anything to fix it.

Except that G. W. Bush put the final nails in the coffin of economic liberalism for the Republicans. Republicans are now essentially hateful socially-intolerant socialists.

Even if the Republicans had a change of heart, they lost so much credibility with Bush Jr. that it would be difficult to have any credibility on economic liberalism.

The only hope for Republicans is that people start hating the gays again.

Artavazd Papazian Odadjian-Gor|6.10.09 @ 2:36PM|#

Like I've said before, Americans are a stupid an intellectually lazy people.

FTFY

And spare myself I shall not.

|6.10.09 @ 2:38PM|#

Get back on your meds Rex. Bush hating is so last year.

Fascitis Necrotizante|6.10.09 @ 2:42PM|#

Off Topic:

Nonagenerian white supremacist just shot two people in the Holocaust Museum.

Xeones|6.10.09 @ 2:46PM|#

Is there any reason to believe they can comprehend trillion dollar budgets?

There's no indication that anyone in Washington comprehends it either, you elitist douche.

|6.10.09 @ 2:46PM|#

Like I've said before, Americans are a stupid an intellectually lazy people.

FTFY

And spare myself I shall not.

We're in floor polish and dessert topping territory here.

Mike M.|6.10.09 @ 2:48PM|#

Get back on your meds Rex. Bush hating is so last year.

Rex had better not look at the latest Rasmussen polling on the economy, or he might need to double his dosage!

Gimlet|6.10.09 @ 2:50PM|#

"Via Mary Katharine Ham"

That's how I want to have children.

Mock Chad|6.10.09 @ 2:53PM|#

"you can try to defer to "experts" all you like to vitiate commonsense, but at the end of the day you're still wrong."

No. A consensus of 97% of the experts says you're wrong.

Cal Lipigian|6.10.09 @ 3:06PM|#

Bush hating will never go out of style. It is the Levi's 501 of American politics.

Rex Rhino|6.10.09 @ 3:34PM|#

Get back on your meds Rex. Bush hating is so last year.

Anyone who recognizes my long history of posting in the Reason forums knows that I am not in any way, shape, or form a "Bush hater" or partisan Democrat.

|6.10.09 @ 4:11PM|#

Sorry for the strong language Rex. But, Bush is gone. This is Obama's mess. It is just as easy to rage about Johnson being responsible for this mess. He is the one who started the whole damn thing anyway.

T|6.10.09 @ 4:36PM|#

On the other hand, 99% of Americans think the last seven presidential candidates of the Libertarian Party have been dorks.

Bullshit. 99%+ of Americans can't even name the last seven LP presidential candidates. How can you have an opinion of some guy you never heard of?

The Declaration of Independenc|6.10.09 @ 4:37PM|#

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

|6.10.09 @ 4:39PM|#

DON'T BUY BONDS! YOU'RE JUST ENCOURAGING THEM!

Alternatively, one could go with "Expectations Matter."

|6.10.09 @ 4:42PM|#

People keep showing up on my teevee saying, "The Fed will (or- will be forced to) raise interest rates by the end of the year."

The Fed will have little or nothing to do with it; at some point, we won't be able to *give* our debt away, if the Congress lunatic asylum doesn't get their shit together. See what the yields are, then.

Xeones|6.10.09 @ 4:49PM|#

Say, D of I, i like the cut of your jib.

|6.10.09 @ 5:17PM|#

Even if the Republicans had a change of heart, they lost so much credibility with Bush Jr. that it would be difficult to have any credibility on economic liberalism.

Remember, they don't need real credibility to win, they just need to not be as bad as those other guys. The Democrats are doing their part far more than the Republicans ever could; you're right that the Republicans couldn't possibly rescue their own reputation.

Some Guy|6.10.09 @ 6:58PM|#

But how many were against it from the beginning? I'd say a bare minimum of 30%, probably closer to 40%.

And it still easily passed, and we'll still vote the same clowns back in next time...again.

|6.10.09 @ 11:12PM|#

It doesn't really matter what we think or what any pole says. Obama and his buddies in Congress aren't going to care what we think until it is time to punch the ballot. This is when they make a full 180 degree and convince us they are not a bunch of crooks.