Nate Silver over at 538 reviews the polling (done by Gallup) on how people would like to see the deficit reduced. Nate's graphic of Gallup's polling:
OK, clearly the public wants mostly spending cuts. But only 20% want only spending cuts. And you might think that "yeah but that 20% is the Republican primary voting base". And you'd be wrong. Only 26% of Republicans want a pure spending cut solution.
Nate makes some assumptions about what "mostly" means (a 3/1 ratio) and then comes up with these numbers about what mix of spending cuts and tax increases are preferred by partisan ID:
Partisan ID |
Tax Increases % |
Spending cuts %
|
Republicans |
26 |
74
|
Independents |
34 |
66
|
Democrats |
46 |
54
|
The Republicans in the House, however, are not like voters. A full 97% of them - all but 7 - have signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge to NEVER support a net tax increase. And they seem to mean it.
Furthermore, as was reported on the Great Orange Front Page yesterday, at least 60 Republicans - ¼ of the caucus - won't raise the debt ceiling no matter what they are offered in return.
What this leads to is this graphic, borrowed from Nate, showing the respective positions of Democrats, Independents, Republicans, and GOP Caucus members.
There is more difference between the House Republican caucus and their own primary voters, than there is between Republican voters and Democratic voters. What this demonstrates is that it's not fear of the Tea Brained challenging them in a primary that drives the extremism of the Republican caucus. It is fear of Grover Norquist and the interest group he represents. Which is, billionaires.
Which ties into this diary by slinkerwink, doesn't it?
We like to make fun of the religious right, and Tea Brained people, and other Republican voting blocs. But we need to temper our scorn with pity. Because in the end, they are nothing to the politicians they bust their butts to elect. The true constituency of the modern Republican party is probably fewer in number than the House Republican caucus - only a few dozen billionaires.
That's it. The selfish interests of a few, almost all old white men, may well drive this nation into shame and dishonor and a renewed recession. And there is simply nothing that Barack Obama, or John Boehner, or Mitch McConnell, or Rush Limbaugh, or any Kossack can say or do to make these selfish bastards stop being selfish bastards.