Apparently, just about the only people in the country who think you can spend your way out of a recession are Obama and the Democrats - and not many Democrats at that.
Rasmussen proved in his latest survey that the American people usually have an inordinate amount of innate common sense when it comes to spending their money:
While influential 20th Century economist John Maynard Keynes would say it's best to increase deficit spending in tough economic times, only 11% of American adults agree and think the nation needs to increase its deficit spending at this time. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% disagree and say it would be better to cut the deficit.In fact, 59% think Keynes had it backwards and that increasing the deficit at this time would hurt the economy rather than help.
To help the economy, most Americans (56%) believe that cutting the deficit is the way to go.
Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans, in fact, say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.
Rejection of Keynesian economics is found across demographic and partisan lines. Republicans and those not affiliated with either major party overwhelmingly reject the notion that increasing the deficit is the right prescription in difficult economic times. Among Democrats, 21% agree with the Keynesian approach, and 47% do not.Investors reject deficit spending even more strongly than non-investors.
It helps that it is counterintuitive to think that creating massive deficits will fix the economy. Only those who are likely to reject the nose on their face are likely to believe Obama when he says we must spend our way out of the recession.
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