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Politics

Poll: 65% of Americans Support Balanced Budget Amendment

Matt Welch | 5.27.2011 9:32 AM

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A Sachs/Mason Dixon poll released today [PDF] has found that "65 percent of the public supports" a balanced budget amendment, "with 27 percent opposed, [and] 8 percent undecided." By party affiliation, that breaks down as "81 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of independents and 45 percent of Democrats."

This jibes with the first-ever Reason-Rupe Poll, which found that 74 percent of Americans think that the federal government needs some kind of spending cap to keep expenditures in line with revenues. Percentage breakdown there among R/I/D: 85/76/64. Here, visualize it:

Much more at our Poll link.

Here's my litmus test: When a majority of Americans are more radical than I am on some fiscal issues, then we are living in interesting times indeed. There are tangible votes available to politicians who realize just how fed up voters are with government overreach, though who knows how long that will take to penetrate the thick skulls in Washington.

First link via the Twitter feed of Stephen Hayes.

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NEXT: Kirkus Reviews: "An enthusiastic, entertaining libertarian critique of American politics"

Matt Welch is an editor at large at Reason.

PoliticsReason-Rupe SurveysGovernment SpendingConstitution
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