Americans' Message to New Congress: Less Gov't, Please

At IBD (via Glenn Reynolds):

A new IBD/TIPP poll on public attitudes suggests that Tuesday's event was less an election than an intervention: Stop what you are doing; you're hurting us all.

A majority of the public wants Washington to stop the spending that has exploded the budget deficit. In a listing of top priorities for Congress, cutting the deficit by cutting spending came in No. 1, cited by 53%. (Fully 73%, including a majority of Democrats, said this is a "high priority.")

"As reflected by the outcome of the midterm elections, the public is sending a clear message to Washington: They want the government to live within its means," said Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, which conducted the poll.

Rounding out the top five on the public's list, pluralities also want Washington to: 2) repeal or revise the new health care law, 3) provide more protection against terrorism, 4) reduce illegal immigration and 5) pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by next year.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the presumed incoming House speaker, has signaled that spending cuts and repealing ObamaCare will be the priorities for the GOP majority.

But Democratic leaders are doubling down. President Obama flatly rejected in a press conference that his policies were to blame for the election losses. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday she would run for House minority leader in the next Congress. With so many moderates in the caucus out in January, she may win.

"We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back," she said in a statement.

But most Americans — 57% — said an ObamaCare rollback should be a "high priority" for Congress — including 46% who say it's very important.

The public is cool to liberal solutions to cut the deficit or boost the economy. Just 7% say deficit-cutting tax hikes are a top priority. Only 14% say the same about a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes.

Only 29% support the idea of more government spending to stimulate the economy; just 14% say it should be a top agenda item.

Anyone who looks at politics with a shred of pragmatism --- and even ideologues can be pragmatic at times, which includes admitting failure --- can see that the left's meme that Obama-Dems never truly advanced a progressive agenda is pure bull. The left is indeed doubling down, and one of the more despicable indicators of this --- if not outright evil --- is the increasingly strident allegations of Republicans as racist. It just proves to me that conservatives still have a lot of work to do, and of course retiring the Obamunist in the Oval Office should be job one.