Sorry Teabaggers: Majority Of Americans Support Expanded Government Role In Economy

Sorry, teabaggers. A Gallup pollreleased on Wednesday has a majority of Americans saying that they approve of the expansion of the government as a means to address the economic crisis. The poll does show, however, that the ideas motivating the tea party protests have deep support within the Republican Party base.

Fifty-three percent of Americans -- roughly the same percentage that elected Obama president -- told pollsters they approve of the recent government expansion, while 44 percent said they disapprove.

Of those who approved of the expansion, most wanted to see the government's role reduced once the crisis has passed. Obama has pledged to roll back government spending once the crisis has been contained and the economy is on solid footing.

The Gallup poll revealed that Americans -- despite their don't-tread-on-me sensibilities -- find government "power" more acceptable than government "spending." Only 40 percent of respondents said that the Obama response was "too big an expansion of government power," while 46 percent said it was the "right amount."

But when "spending" was substituted for "power," 55 percent said it was "too much," while 42 percent said it was the "right amount" or "not enough."

While Fox News has gone to great lengths to celebrate the supposed bipartisan nature of today's tea parties, the poll reveals a decidedly partisan edge to the debate. Two-thirds of Democrats find Obama's spending proposals to be the right amount or too small, whereas 86 percent of Republicans think the plans spend too much.

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Comments

[Bamajules]

I am a strong advocate and believer in our Constitution. MUCH smarter men than Obama created it and it is nothing but ego and ignorance that would make a man ignore it! The only CHANGE that I have seen from Obama is that we are now in debt greater than we have EVER been with ANY President & he managed to do this in just a couple of months! Amazing!!

The free enterprise system works and business should fail if they aren't run properly. It is NOT the place of the government to intervene and bail them out! At this point, the government has a financial stake in our banking and automotive systems as well as a plethora of other types of business. It's not only getting close to Socialism, but is bordering on Communism.

For those of you who think that Huffington Post is an unbiased source, you are crazy. They (& likely most of you) are nothing more than left wing nuts that are reveling in the demise of our country! It's time for you to smarten up & remove your political affiliations and just simply support our Constitution & be an American! It's not about Republican or Liberal, those are nothing more than titles. It's about what is deep inside of us & how much we are proud of being American and want to see our country thrive and succeed! Keep supporting failing ideas and policies & you will do nothing more than watch us fail!

[Bamajules]

TO Genep34 and Jadeba:

You are both not only uninformed, but unrealistic. It was NOT a totally white population and it also wasn't a bunch of right-wing nuts. The hundreds of thousands of people who were protesting are sick of government choosing to spend our tax dollars on things that the VAST majority of us do NOT approve of. This article says that the majority supports the bailouts & stimulus packages. I don't remember there being a nation-wide vote to determine that! I would LOVE to have had a say in whether these things passed or not! NOBODY asked me or anybody else for that matter. My representatives didn't ask me, nor did they listen to what the majority of us wanted.

I am anything BUT uneducated & am VERY aware of how frighteningly close to socialism this administration is taking us! I am enraged by the amount of taxes that I have to pay! I'm sick of supporting the uneducated & lazy population! I also feel strongly that socialized medicine will be the demise of our medical system in this country! It isn't successful anywhere else, so why would it work here? If a person isn't insured then they should educate themselves well enough to find a job that will offer them coverage! If that doesn't work for them, then they should work 2 jobs to afford to pay for private insurance. Excuses are all that our country is coming to & that is horribly sad!!

[Riani]

Bamajules,
You say "I am anything BUT uneducated & am VERY aware of how frighteningly close to socialism this administration is taking us!"
The second part of that sentence just serves to disprove the first part of the sentence - a total contradiction. No educated person would view the USA in its current state as anywhere, remotely close to socialism. Furthermore, the "scary socialism" tag has been used to death now. An educated person would surely know that there a different forms of socialism, many of them not only harmless, but actually benificial to the citizens of that country.

[Bamajules]

Riani,

Maybe you should re-read my post, since you obviously misinterpreted what I said. I said I was aware of how frighteningly close to socialism this administration is taking us. Note the words "close" and "taking us". That implies that we aren't there, but are certainly headed in that direction. I did not at any point state that we were currently a socialist country, so maybe you skimmed the post versus actually reading it. Hhmmm....

You say that there is a "scary socialism" tag that has been used to death, but I see it as a reality. Government controlled banks, government controlled auto makers, government oversight into all aspects of our lives? How about Nationalized medicine, which is nothing more than socialized medicine.

You can continue to wear your blinders and be oblivious to our reality, but the vast majority of us are tired of our money being used to fund what the government wants versus what our country NEEDS!

As for various forms of socialism, none of them are acceptable for us. We were not founded on those principles and the constitution makes it clear that we were not intended to head that way either. If you find socialism acceptable, by all means move to a socialistic country!

[ssol4569]

" My favorite sign from all the Tea Parties was the one of George Washington with a bubble caption over his head reading WTF? Left of center Americans think right of center Americans are too conservative but they need to re-read our Founding Fathers words again! Republicans need look to Libertarians for economic direction, big time! But who am I, I'm just the gorilla in the room. " Yours Truly, Magilla

[naschkatze]

Ryan, do you think you could do a post on how the teabagging played out? I'm trying to get a bead on how many people turned out nationally. All those red dots FOX put up on the screen look impressive, but after reading this post, I don't think the head count is impressive.

[cjk002]

I've been seeing numbers ranging from about 100,00 to 200,000. If you compare it to any of the recent major protests we've seen over the last few years (immigration reform, anti-Iraq war), it was a fraction of the people who showed up for other rallies.

There were more people at Obama's victory rally in Chicago on election night than there were all over the country yesterday at tea parties.

[jadeba]

There were more people at an Obama rally in St. Louis than that! Heck, in little old Pueblo, CO there were close to 15k. 84k in Denver - it would have been bigger, the stadium wouldn't hold anymore.

[Genep34]

good point - i wouldn't be surprised if the total number was less than 100,000 - would be nice to see how much was spent total along with free FOX coverage to get each person out.

[BigJim716]

I'll bet there was around 700,000.

[cjk002]

Even the organizers aren't claiming that many.

Here is a list of the estimated numbers at most (but not all) of the events across the country:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/04/tea-parties-appear-to-draw-at-least.html

The latest estimate is 250,000.

[BigJim716]

Oh yeah,
In looking through the list the sources CJK gave for the estimates they say things like "This event was a Dick Armey sponsored event". (Look at the Tampa estimate)

Having been there from the beginning I do not even know who Dick Armey is. He must either be a Rich Republican or a Right Wing talk show guy.

This kind of stuff means we must fight harder. Thanks for the misinformed source but you go ahead and believe what they tell you.

[BigJim716]

Another bit of biased evidence is reading the comments from the source that says over 250,000 people attended this event. The comments at the bottom of this source are similar to the comments you would see here, so, I would tend to say these numbers did not come from the organizers as CJK stated.

Nice try though. That was a slick bait and switch debating point.

[tjdumas]

? where did you get this number?

[Genep34]

Cmon- just as FOX and Richard Mellon Saife used the Christian right to impeach Clinton on moral grounds, they are now using dumb white people in the GOP to come after Obama on economic grounds.

I am sure most noticed that this was a white only protest. And the fact that they called the president both a fascist and a socialist - two mutually exclusive terms - shows the ignorance of the people involved.

And in a way this was good for the progressive movement because the mega-rich backers of this protest have now shown the American public that the core of the republic party are backward unthinking, undeducated white people who are easilty manipulated into opposing policies and programs that are good for them and their families. And of course the mega-rich backers garner support to keep the Bush tax cuts for themselves so that they can hoard more money from the poor.

[BigJim716]

I guess you consider me a dumb white person.

you are simply misinformed about our protest. We are bipartisan and simply want to reign in government spending and the current Obama tax increases(Cap and Trade). We have little doubt Obama will have to raise our taxes down the line to pay for his massive debt. I looked at the numbers and concluded the Rich simply do not have enough money to tax to cover Obamas spending.

Having been part of this movement from the very beginning I can assure you no Rich Republicans had any hand in this movement.

I do not expect you to agree but you should respect people right to protest.

[NJmikeV]

"...I can assure you no Rich Republicans had any hand in this movement..."

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/14/lobbying-clients-teaparties/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/a-teabagger-timeline-koch_b_187312.html

[jadeba]

What you were protesting was the tax cut given by President Obama and speculation that tax increases are coming - not that they're here, they might be coming.

The issue of taxation is all too simple for some who do not wish to pay taxes at all. My question to them would be how do we pay for:

Police
Fire Departments
Public Schools
Parks in which to demonstrate in
Public libraries
Road construction, repair, other infrastructure
Post Office
A standing military
Air traffic controllers
FEMA
Social Security
Medicare
and the list goes on.

I don't much like paying taxes, no one does but I do realize that if I expect to have any of the above services, I have to. In the absence of tax funds, fire departments would be privatized - you pay or your house burns down. I would fully expect that such "insurance" would not be cheap. National parks would simply get no attention at all as no one would pony up for maintaining them. With no public schools, every school would become another expense or you home school your children.

This movement might not have begun as a Faux News/Dick Armey/Richard Scaiffe brainchild but has been taken over by them, like it or not. If it is really bipartisan, it will result in a third party, not a stronger gop.

[Truthahn]

Barack Obama had quite a few rich people on his side, too. We won't see George Soros standing in line at the welfare office anytime soon.

[BigJim716]

I do not doubt the premise of this article that most people want government role. That is exactly why we have these protests. I went to the Tea Party in Orlando, it was peaceful, it was informative, and it is the first step in our mission to reign in Government Spending.

I do not expect everyone here, I would be happy with a few, to understand our cause. I would like for some of you to ask yourself one thing. Why am I using President Bush's spending to rationalize Obamas spending. Some will say we are spending on better things. Maybe so. But according to the CBO Obama is tripling the debt that Bush produced. You can certainly disagree but even Obamas budget shows spending substantially higher than Bush.

[Countdown09]

"I would like for some of you to ask yourself one thing. Why am I using President Bush's spending to rationalize Obamas spending."

Because some of us have faced the sad fact that it's going to take more spending to dig us out of this economic mess and set the country back on a course of REAL recovery. Our economy will only survive if there is money circulating through it and right now the only body with money to circulate is the government.

My question to you is, what is your solution to fix the economy? Let me guess... continue the republican ideas of more tax cuts. Well we now see how that worked, IT DIDN'T!

[Truthahn]

How about the common sense approach of government tightening its belt and living within its means? People forget that the early 80's recession was a lot worse than the current one. We survived it, and we did it without multi-trillion dollar stimulus spending.

[Hirnlego]

Where were these people during Bush?

Bush has borrowed more than all previous 42 Presidents. Combined.
http://digg.com/business_finance/Bush_has_borrowed_more_than_all_previous_42_Presidents_Combined

It collapsed of course and here comes further bills.

[BigJim716]

That is a great question Hirnlego. A few people i have met at these protests and including me protested Bush by voting for Obama.

And you are correct about the money Bush Spent. Most people I spoke to at these protests agree with you on that.

Yet you seem to use Bush spending to rationalize Obamas Spending which will triple the amount of Debt Bush put us into.

[tjdumas]

Yeah but what you don't seem to understand is that he has to spend to fix what bush broke. Now people have no problem complaining about the money it's going to take to fix this mess but for some reason, they want to leave that part out. yeah obama is spending spending etc... but I saw no outrage when bush spent us into this mess. So yes, there is some rational for Obama to spend the money necessary to fix this. Could I ask what you would do? How would you save the banks? Would you let them fail, thus killing the middle class cause business can't get loans to pay their people and their company? Would you have him not help those who got shafted with the subprime fiasco? I hear a lot of people saying he's spending but not one person is saying what they would do....hmmm maybe because they don't have a clue? How about letting Obama fix this before people start complaining. I remember when Bush was in office and if ANYONE said anything against the president it was considered TREASON! I guess it's ok to do that to Obama.

[Countdown09]

So the 99% of Economist who agree Pres. Obama is doing the right/ONLY thing to avoid another great depression doesn't know what their talking about?

[Truthahn]

And out comes the old lazy liberal standy: kicking around George W. Bush. Everybody, including most teabaggers, has already agreed that Bush was fiscally irresponsible. That doesn't excuse Barack Obama being even worse. Dems always try to change the subject of the debate back to George W. Bush, because they know it's impossible to defend Obama's spending habits. It's truly lame. Bush is gone. Democrats control the White House and all of Congress. You Dems are not the opposition anymore -- you're running the whole government now. That means you have to justify your plans BASED ON THEIR OWN MERITS. That tired old routine of bashing George W. Bush doesn't cut it anymore.

[Countdown09]

I'll justify President Obama's spending.......99% of the world's economists agree President Obama is doing the right thing. They also agree t if he doesn't spend us out of this mess the country will face another great depression. So until the "tea party crowd" or someone else comes up with a better plan I'll support this one.

[phoebie]

I am bewildered by the teabaggers - not just for not recognizing the term contemporarily means an odd sexual act. But as the teabaggers drove the streeets (paid by taxes), left their children all day in hands of schools (again, paid by taxes), whose lives are made safer by a strong and mindful military (paid by guess what), enjoy national and state parks (?), rely on FDA, CDC and many other letters of the alphabet to secure safe food and drugs and so many other services the government provides for our welfare,these same teabaggers realize that their protests are assured as their right by the same taxed based government.
Protest? Yes. But acknowledge why you can.

[salsmom]

Agree.

Yesterday was used to protest Obama not to protest taxes. And until these folks own up to that I refuse to take them seriously.

[BigJim716]

Thanks salsmom for giving me the opportunity. We protest the government spending by Bush and Obama. We agree we need taxes for many of the agencies you name. Our preference would be for a more of a state role than a federal role in many things.

We also do not feel we need government in all the things Bush proposed and Obama is proposing.

[Truthahn]

So what if it was used to protest Obama? Protests always end up with anger directed at the people in power, especially the President. That's how it's always been and probably always will be. The Iraq war protests were no different. They degenerated into little more than a big Bush-bashing fiesta, despite the fact that the Democrats voted to authorize the invasion, and kept funding the ongoing war.

And really, Obama deserves a lot of the teabaggers' anger. We all saw his budget, with its huge deficits projected for the next decade. Increasingly, people are waking up to the fact that Democrats are setting us up for a gigantic tax hike in the next presidental term.

[Countdown09]

You are so right salsmom, yesterday's protest had nothing to do with taxes and spending and everything to do with republicans anger that Obama is now President. Add to that he's doing a great job.....they're losing their minds.

[ptobe]

Line missing in the man's sign:

"YOUR CHILDREN WILL OWE IT
YOU HAVE BUSH & CO. TO THANK FOR IT*"

*we were in really good shape after 8 years of Democrat rule, then good ole "small gov't, cut spending" W. went and bloated gov't & increased spending...

[jane gutowski]

Bush increased spending and obama promised change. Instead of change he doubled spending and our debt . obama is just magnifying all the bad choices bush made tothe point where he is doing long term damage to our country and our kids.Thousands of people hate this trillion dollar spending and they shoudnt be ignored.

[ptobe]

So, these thousands of folks (mainly right-wing) were ok when the trillion dollar budget was spent on a pointless war and giving huge tax cuts to the wealthiest of the wealthy, but they freak out when that SAME AMOUNT is spent on health care, education, infrastructure and tax cuts for 95% of Americans, not to mention the money needed to fix the failure of the banking system - a failure that caused by reckless deregulation (another celebrated cause of the right).

Now that's consistent, isn't it?

[cjk002]

You just committed the same factual error that keeps the teabaggers from being taken seriuosly.

"Obama promised change but instead of change he doubled our spending and debt."

The agenda Obama ran on includes everything he is doing now, including the stimulus package. When Bush signed the bailout, the increased our debt from $500 billion to $1.3 trillion. The talking point that "Obama has tripled Bush's deficit" is a complete falsehood because the people who are using this talking point are not including Bush's bailout. Obama inherited a record deficit and an unprecedented economic crisis, and he is spending money appropriately to deal with it.

I also notice that the teabaggers keep omitting the fact that once the Bush tax cuts expire, the increased revenue will bring the deficit back to where it was pre-bailout by 2012. The truth is Obama's plan include both spending and deficit reduction, most Americans know this, and that is why he continues to have support from the public, and why those tea parties were so sparsely attended.

[Truthahn]

Clinton had a little thing called the tech boom to help him out. Bubba also ran a lightly regulated free market, which Dems now say is evil.

[escribacat]

Thanks, Ryan Grim, for reminding us of this important fact. I'm getting major tea-bag fatigue. For coming from such a small minority, these protests sure got a lot of airtime. (I don't remember anti Iraq protests getting much airplay, did they?) The press coverage of these anti-Obama and anti-tax events makes it seem like that's the prevalent opinion -- which it isn't. By a huge margin, Obama's policies still have the support of the majority of people. I wish the press did a better job of representing that. Instead, it just follows the noise. Why don't they cover some of the public works projects that are coming out of the stimulus? Yeah, okay, boring -- but news should be more than entertainment.

[Rolf618]

Too bad its over. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.
Hmm heres an idea for the Fox Reality Channel, a new reality show: "America's Stupidest Protesters"

Its a laugh riot, AND you've already got enough footage for several seasons.

[lmnop13]

Americaa Most Hardcore Teabaggers, new reality series, Wednesdays at 8pm.

[rosiebond007]

We need more Government folks at this time, to watch those cheating, lying Repubs.

When they finally learn that they won't get away with it anymore - the size of the gov will be reduced.
There is too much damage to be cleared up - we need competent people to handle it.

SO REPUBLICANS - MAKE NO MISTAKE - BLAME YOURSELVES FOR THE LAST 8 YEARS OF YOUR MESS WHICH YOU VOTED INTO POWER AND WHICH WE NOW HAVE TO CLEAR UP.

DON'T BLAME THE DEMOCRATS.

[GayGrandpa]

Like a bad kid you lied (to US) and then stole the car (US) and drove it into a tree!

[Rojellio]

You can have as many regulations as you want. So long as politicians are being paid to look the other way, the regulations will be feckless. Most of the quid pro quo for looking the other way can be traced to your precious left wing radicals in Congress.

[Val1981]

All i have to say is GOD BLESS OBAMA , AMERICA IS FOR THE FREE AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT JUST MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY AND LET US BE FREE. INSTEAD OF SENDING TEA BAGS TO BE WASTED, USE THAT MONEY AND GIVE IT TO THE POOR.

[LeftyLucy]

Workers of the World Unite!

[lunaticphilosopher]

I am sorry but due to a recent Supreme Court decision you are no longer allowed post any opinion with the word "God" in it. You are also not allowed to use the word "poor" as that is seen as a negatvie attack on someone who does not have what others may have. From now on the only words that may be used in posts are "happy" and "Obama is great", and "BO the dog".

The is a public service message brought to you by the Brown Shirts.
If you are tired of opposing views, call the Brown Shirts. They will help remove all opposing views so that the benevolent dictator may carry on his burden of saving the world by making every country a friend of theAmerican people. You like me! You really like me!

[LeftyLucy]

So this is what passes for truth?

Only 13% want the increased role of Government involvement in the economy to remain permanent.

44% DISAPPROVE of expanded role.

The P/L's complain that these "teabaggers" are just mindless automatons following the siren song of Fox News.

The poll data can be interpreted to fit both side's arguments.

I prefer to draw my own conclusions from the data instead of relying on yours or Fox news' bias.

[PhilipTaylor]

Washington-Wall Street Scam: Just FACTS!

$5 Billion Wall Street gave to Congress over Ten Year:

1. Average $7.5 Million to each Senator/4 years!
2. Average $1.86 Million to each House Member/4 years!
3. Early Campaign Obama took Lead in Wall Street Funds: $479,209 with GS/UBS Biggest!

1980 WS Executives made 20 times average Worker
2008 WS Executives made 400 times average Worker
NOW Canada Executive made 20 times average Worker
NOW Britain Executives made 22 times average Worker
NOW Japan Executives made 11 times average Worker

300% Increase in Pay for Top 1% from 1980-2008!
20% Decrease in Pay for Other 99% from 1980-2008!

Top 400 Taxpayers Paid = $105 billion in adjusted gross income (Gross Much Larger)
Top 400 Taxes Paid = $18 billion = Tax Rate 17%
In 2002 Top 400 Tax Rate = 23%
In 1995 Top 400 Tax Rate = 30%

1980 Banking was 10% of US Profits
2007 Banking was 40% of US Profits
Shrink Banking to 1980 SUPPORT ROLE in Our Society!


FED/Treasury gave $Trillions to WS and only $Billions to Main Street!
$1,000 to WS for Every $1 to Main Street!

Reduced "Market-to-Market" Rule so Banks can L1E about value of $700 Trillion in Toxic Assets!

NOT "1" Executive (except mergers) Fired, Fined, Investigated, Prosecuted, or Convicted!

Why is WS charging Main Street 17.5% to 35% on Credit Cards?

Can Wall Street Survive if Main Street Boycotts Wall Street?