Looks like deficit peacocks Kent Conrad and Ben Nelson are out there by their lonesomes (well, they have Republican members of Congress on his side) in calling for extending the Bush tax cuts.
The White House says let them expire. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer say let them expire.
According to the latest Society for Human Resource Management/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, the American people say so, too.
30 percent of Americans believe all of Bush's 2001 and 2003 cuts should stay in place. That compared to 31 percent who believed that all of them should be repealed. Twenty-seven percent take the route Obama campaigned on: Tax cuts for the wealthy should be repealed, while the others should stay in place. [. . .] Independents hewed closest to the overall sample. Twenty-seven percent said all the tax cuts should be kept in place. Thirty-two percent said they all should be repealed. Twenty-seven percent said the tax cuts for the wealthy should be repealed, but the middle class cuts should be kept in place.
Even 40 percent of Republicans say they should be allowed to expire--19 percent say repeal them just for the wealthy, and 21 percent for everyone. That suggests that 40 percent of Republicans, who have been hearing the deficit hysteria since Barack Obama took office, are smarter than your average congressional Republican or deficit peacock. They understand the connection between tax cuts for the wealthy and the deficit.
Republicans want to make this a key fight in the midterm. Sounds like a really good idea, when you look at that polling. Provided that the ConservaDem deficit peacocks get on the same page with the majority of their colleagues, Obama, and the American people.
