Hey! Sen. Max Baucus, listen up!
(Mitch Dumke/REUTERS)
As
Greg Sargent writes, the American people are making incredibly clear what they want the Super Congress to do. This time it's in a Politico battleground poll.
When it comes to the two most contentious items on the agenda, the public strongly backs tax hikes on the rich, and strongly opposes cuts to entitlements:
* The public opposes the supercommittee “making hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts to Medicare and Medicare through increasing beneficiary costs,” 76-19. A majority, 52 percent, strongly opposes these cuts.
* The public supports the supercommittee “increasing taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations,” 66-31. A majority, 52 percent, strongly support these tax increases.
Democrats have agreed to the entitlements cuts, even though a majority of Americans strongly opposes them, on the condition that Republicans agree to the tax increases on the rich and corporations. Republicans have not agreed to those tax increases, even though a majority strongly supports them. There you have it.
It's not like it's the first time we've seen those results, but it is as though the powers-that-be in D.C.—House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House—are hell bent on pretending that public opinion doesn't exist. That makes sense for Republicans, since the majority of public opinion continues to be diametrically opposed to their agenda. But it makes absolutely no sense for Democrats. None. For once, Democrats, pander to the people! You'll be rewarded for it at the polls. I promise.
In case you haven't weighed in yet with your opinion to the Super Congress, Russ Feingold's Progressives United has made it pretty easy. Something's got to break through the fog of the Beltway and get those Democrats to wake up and realize that the narrative has changed around them. Maybe your message will help make that happen. Maybe.