...
Americans' relative confidence in President Barack Obama and
their support for repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy could
give Democrats an edge in budget negotiations, according to a Pew Research poll released Thursday, while Republicans risk portrayal as obstructionists.
"The Democrats are in a strong position with the public as they engage in negotiations to find a solution to the fiscal cliff crisis," the Pew report finds, echoing a slew of recent surveys that find broad support for a compromise between sides, but also a willingness to blame Republicans should the talks fail.
Obama's negotiating position is backed by strong approval ratings and the perception that he's more serious about working with Republicans than vice versa. The president's approval rating, at 55 percent, is more than twice that of Republican congressional leaders, who have suffered in the polls since the debt ceiling debate last summer.
Both parties are about equally trusted on jobs and the deficit, but the Republican Party is seen, by a 20-point margin, as "more extreme in its positions," than the Democratic Party, and as less likely to work across the aisle by an even greater spread.
A plan proposed this week by House Republicans would permanently extend Bush-era income tax cuts for the wealthy, taking off the table the most popular of the changes Pew polled on. About seven in 10 Americans support raising the tax on income over $250,000. Measures that would limit taxpayer deductions, raise taxes on investment income, and reduce Medicare and Social Security benefits for higher-income seniors also won majority support.
Public opinion on other proposed cuts was murkier. Nearly three-quarters of Americans say they support both spending cuts and tax increases, but a majority disapproves of specific cuts to education, infrastructure, defense and anti-poverty programs, as well as raising the retirement age for Medicare and Social Security.
Knowledge of what the fiscal cliff entails was also mixed, with 57
percent of Americans correctly identifying that the phrase refers to
automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could go into effect next
year, but 43 percent misinformed or not sure about what the term meant.
Only
a quarter of people named the fiscal cliff as the country's biggest
issue, unchanged since March. More named jobs as their biggest worry --
22 percent of Americans believe that plenty of jobs are available, an
increase from 10 percent two years ago.
Perceptions of the state of the economy have somewhat improved as well, with the percentage who say the economy is "poor" the lowes
t since January 2008. But pessimism about the future has also grown, fueled by a growing partisan divide, Pew found. While Democrats' economic outlook has remained the same in recent months, Republican confidence in America's economic future has plummeted since the election.
The Pew poll surveyed 1,503 American adults by phone between Dec. 5 and Dec. 9, with a 2.9-percent margin of error.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/13/fiscal-cliff-poll-pew_n_2292151.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Negotiations are expected to continue Thursday on the "fiscal cliff" with Republicans at a growing public opinion disadvantage and approval ratings for President Barack Obama rising to levels not seen since the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Senior Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota said on MSNBC late Wednesday that he thought Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner were edging closer to a deal.
He added that he hoped something will be announced next week to avert the steep tax hikes and budget cuts set for the start of 2013.
"I believe that they will have a framework agreement," Conrad said. "I believe they'll have it early next week. And I believe it will secure the votes in both the Senate and the House. We may miss some on the wings, but I think the center will hold."
Republican Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, in a Fox Business News interview Wednesday evening, disagreed with Conrad's assessment.
"I started pretty optimistic about this that we could get this done well before the holidays, but I don't feel that way anymore," Brady said. "It seems to me a decision's been made perhaps by the White House already to take us off this fiscal cliff."
Conservative Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina said the economy had already been damaged by the uncertainty caused by the deadlock.
"We can't fix it Christmas Eve and expect it all to bounce back in January," he said Thursday on CBS.
Sharp differences remained between congressional Republicans and the White House in talks to avert the cliff, and negotiators warned the showdown could drag on past Christmas.
Both sides refused to give any ground in public, with the main sticking point being the expiring tax cuts, which Obama wants extended for all but high earners and Boehner wants extended for everyone.
Polling shows strong support for Obama's position. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC survey released late Wednesday, three-quarters of Americans say they would accept raising taxes on the wealthy to avoid the cliff.
Among Republicans, some 61 percent say they would accept tax increases on high earners.
An ABC News-Washington Post poll released Tuesday indicted that nearly half of Americans approve of Obama's handling of the negotiations versus the quarter of respondents who approved of Boehner's.
At the same time, Obama's public opinion rating has reached about 54 percent in the Real Clear Politics polling average, above the level where it peaked in May 2011, when bin Laden was killed.
Republicans are in a bad negotiating position, Conrad said, noting that the Democratic-controlled Senate has already passed a bill preserving tax cuts for the middle-class, leaving the Republican-controlled House standing in the way.
"And so Republicans are really in an awkward position," he said.
Boehner, meanwhile, faces increasingly conflicting pressures, from the right to hold firm, from the Republican center to be flexible and from the polls to abandon his position. (Editing by Xavier Briand)
"The Democrats are in a strong position with the public as they engage in negotiations to find a solution to the fiscal cliff crisis," the Pew report finds, echoing a slew of recent surveys that find broad support for a compromise between sides, but also a willingness to blame Republicans should the talks fail.
Obama's negotiating position is backed by strong approval ratings and the perception that he's more serious about working with Republicans than vice versa. The president's approval rating, at 55 percent, is more than twice that of Republican congressional leaders, who have suffered in the polls since the debt ceiling debate last summer.
Both parties are about equally trusted on jobs and the deficit, but the Republican Party is seen, by a 20-point margin, as "more extreme in its positions," than the Democratic Party, and as less likely to work across the aisle by an even greater spread.
A plan proposed this week by House Republicans would permanently extend Bush-era income tax cuts for the wealthy, taking off the table the most popular of the changes Pew polled on. About seven in 10 Americans support raising the tax on income over $250,000. Measures that would limit taxpayer deductions, raise taxes on investment income, and reduce Medicare and Social Security benefits for higher-income seniors also won majority support.
Public opinion on other proposed cuts was murkier. Nearly three-quarters of Americans say they support both spending cuts and tax increases, but a majority disapproves of specific cuts to education, infrastructure, defense and anti-poverty programs, as well as raising the retirement age for Medicare and Social Security.
Perceptions of the state of the economy have somewhat improved as well, with the percentage who say the economy is "poor" the lowes
t since January 2008. But pessimism about the future has also grown, fueled by a growing partisan divide, Pew found. While Democrats' economic outlook has remained the same in recent months, Republican confidence in America's economic future has plummeted since the election.
The Pew poll surveyed 1,503 American adults by phone between Dec. 5 and Dec. 9, with a 2.9-percent margin of error.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/13/fiscal-cliff-poll-pew_n_2292151.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
U.S. Fiscal Cliff Talks Continue, Republicans Losing Public Opinion Wars
WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Negotiations are expected to continue Thursday on the "fiscal cliff" with Republicans at a growing public opinion disadvantage and approval ratings for President Barack Obama rising to levels not seen since the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Senior Democratic Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota said on MSNBC late Wednesday that he thought Obama and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner were edging closer to a deal.
He added that he hoped something will be announced next week to avert the steep tax hikes and budget cuts set for the start of 2013.
"I believe that they will have a framework agreement," Conrad said. "I believe they'll have it early next week. And I believe it will secure the votes in both the Senate and the House. We may miss some on the wings, but I think the center will hold."
Republican Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, in a Fox Business News interview Wednesday evening, disagreed with Conrad's assessment.
"I started pretty optimistic about this that we could get this done well before the holidays, but I don't feel that way anymore," Brady said. "It seems to me a decision's been made perhaps by the White House already to take us off this fiscal cliff."
Conservative Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina said the economy had already been damaged by the uncertainty caused by the deadlock.
"We can't fix it Christmas Eve and expect it all to bounce back in January," he said Thursday on CBS.
Sharp differences remained between congressional Republicans and the White House in talks to avert the cliff, and negotiators warned the showdown could drag on past Christmas.
Both sides refused to give any ground in public, with the main sticking point being the expiring tax cuts, which Obama wants extended for all but high earners and Boehner wants extended for everyone.
Polling shows strong support for Obama's position. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC survey released late Wednesday, three-quarters of Americans say they would accept raising taxes on the wealthy to avoid the cliff.
Among Republicans, some 61 percent say they would accept tax increases on high earners.
An ABC News-Washington Post poll released Tuesday indicted that nearly half of Americans approve of Obama's handling of the negotiations versus the quarter of respondents who approved of Boehner's.
At the same time, Obama's public opinion rating has reached about 54 percent in the Real Clear Politics polling average, above the level where it peaked in May 2011, when bin Laden was killed.
Republicans are in a bad negotiating position, Conrad said, noting that the Democratic-controlled Senate has already passed a bill preserving tax cuts for the middle-class, leaving the Republican-controlled House standing in the way.
"And so Republicans are really in an awkward position," he said.
Boehner, meanwhile, faces increasingly conflicting pressures, from the right to hold firm, from the Republican center to be flexible and from the polls to abandon his position. (Editing by Xavier Briand)
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