Learning Deficit

by digby

Linda Hirshman reports on the new Pew Poll questions about government spending and the deficit and guess what? It turns out that people’s attitudes depend on how you ask the question:

[T]he usually reliable folks at Pew have done the hard work of asking about stimulus vs. deficit without loading the question, and their results are quite different than the snapshot that got all the press last week. Instead of offering the public an elaborate scenario in which they were asked to probe their innermost feelings and choose a position that accords with their “point of view” about what should worry the government more, as NBC did, Pew asked: “If you were setting the priorities for the government these days, would you set a higher priority on ‘spending more to help the economy recover’ or ‘reducing the budget deficit'” (rotating the choices). Forty-eight percent of those questioned put a higher priority on spending more to help the economy recover, while 46 percent chose reducing the deficit. Pew explained the difference between their results and the answers the other two polls turned up:

“A number of recent surveys have attempted to gauge whether deficit concerns are eroding support for government spending to stimulate the economy, but the findings of these efforts are mixed. There is little doubt that Americans are worried about the deficit, but not surprisingly with such a complex issue, the way questions are worded clearly impacts how the public views the debate.” (emphasis added)

The fact that 46 percent of people don’t understand high school level macro-economics isn’t all that great a piece of news, but it’s substantially better than what the loaded poll questions in previous polls produced. And I shouldn’t be too hard on people that believe deficit spending is the cause of our problems. As I’ve said ad nauseam, it’s counterintuive to believe otherwise and they’ve been propagandized to believe this for decades with no dedicated education or explanation to the contrary. Under the circumstances, it’s heartening that more people aren’t convinced the government needs to tighten its belt in order to save the economy than are.

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