Poll: Republicans Don't Support ANY Spending Cuts

Medicare, Medicaid, and tax deductions are all off the chopping block

If you're confused about why Republicans haven't proposed any specific spending cuts to deal with the fiscal cliff, this could be why: Republican voters don't agree on any particular cuts.

That's the takeaway from a new poll from McClatchy-Marist. Here's a quick wrap-up of the results for all voters:

74% oppose cuts to Medicare.
59% oppose raising the Medicare age from 65 to 67.
70% oppose cuts to Medicaid.
67% oppose cutting the tax deduction on home mortgage interest.
69% oppose nixing the tax deduction for charitable donations.
74% oppose raising taxes for all.

57% support raising taxes on the top 2% of incomes (the mainstay of Obama's plan, as you're probably all tired of hearing).

According to McClatchy, a majority of Republicans oppose all of the above - including the spending cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

The takeaway might not be straightforward, though. It could be that GOP voters support cuts not mentioned in the poll, like slashing foreign aid, as Reason's Peter Suderman suggests. However, cutting foreign aid doesn't help as much as some voters think, since it accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget.

Via McClatchy and Reason.

Do you support cuts to spending on any of the following...

[MBernard]

Until republicans can make up their mind, I guess we're not moving forward as one then.

[Sonny]

Hey, friend, when it comes down to being able to eat, or get medical attention....you guys on the right, would cannibalize each other in a heartbeat...to save your own butts....Its a fact of human nature.

[Tralee]

Come on, you know it's up to the president to put something on the table. I have a question, you're a reasonable liberal, when the pres. gets his higher tax on us 2%, it will amount to $800 billion over 10 years (supposedly, actually revenue will go down, it always does when there are tax hikes) but that is only $80 billion a year, that amount runs the government, at this rate of spending and Obama want's to up that, for 8 whole days. Now, that's not going to do anything for the deficit that is fast approaching $17 TRILLION. So, my question is what good will it do to raise the taxes other than to do what? Punish the successful? Just for spite? The lie that the tax cuts for the 2% caused all this mess is nuts, so why do it? Who will it help? I don't know, economically it doesn't make any sense to raise the taxes so high that the wealth will just retrench and protect their assets, leave them in investments and not take them or keep their salary under the $250,000 yearly threshold. Obama knows that to raise the cap. gains tax ALWAYS reduces revenue, always, he admitted it, but to him, hurting the bottom line of America is not as important as his idea of "fairness".?????? See, I don't get that, if person A, is very bright, gets into a great college and then great grad school of some sort, graduates with a high GPA and lands a really well paying, but hard and time consuming 24/7 type job and earns $$$$ where is the fairness in taking his hard and honestly earned money, to give an entitlement to B, who is just so so in school, didn't get into a good college and dropped out after 1 year to take a low paying but easy and stress free job, requiring a 35 hr. work week with benefits? A and B had equal opportunity, they got different results, but it's not A's fault that B did not do as well and it's not A's job to work hard to make the money for the government to take away so B can continue to work his easy but low paying job and only work 35 hours a week.

[MRMacrum]

@Tralee - "Come on, you know it's up to the president to put something on the table." ...

Why? What is wrong with the GOP leadership coming up with at least some on their own?

[CanisCanemEdit]

@MRMacrum - Am I wrong here or was it the Democratic House and Senate and President that couldn't put together and pass a budget for the first two years of this administration.

Pot plus Kettle equals Black.

[gregorytoye]

@Tralee see this is what republicans do theres three things on that list i agree with and the rest is bs why would you cut medicaid or medicare stupid i dont agree with raising the age from 65 to 67 thats just retarded

[Sonny]

Can you believe this? The republican party can't even get its act together on what they want to "cut"?!? I have said all along that the very people who complain the loudest about "food stamps" or "unemployment" or "social security", etc., etc., etc...are the VERY people who are RECEIVING those benefits in the first place...Its amazing to see the so-called right wing, buck their own leader and puppet master (rush limbaugh) when it comes down to taking food off of their own tables....But, of course, they still don't want any other Americans to have what they take for granted each and every month...And this poll shows their blatant hypocrisy!

[Tralee]

Um, sorry to burst your little Obama Bubble, but it's up the the Leader of America, the President, to LEAD and put cuts on the table. Not the false cut of the $716B cut from Medicaid he wants to count as a cut in entitlements (of course he DENIED this cut while running for president) because he just transferred that "cut" over to pay for another entitlement, Obamacare. Now, if you want John A. Boehner to be the acting president, then that's another discussion. Unfortunately you all vote for Obama as president, so perhaps it's time for his to assume the job, you know, lead, be a leader, be in charge, make a decision, advance a plan, do the work and so on. Right? The R's have given him half of the impossible revenue he wants in loophole cuts and caps in deductions, it's now up to Obama to propose a cut or two. His turn so to speak. And, not just the same old budget request he put in last year that couldn't even pass the Senate, not only was is rejected by the Senate, NO ONE voted for it, no one, not one Democrat could vote for it and as usual, no budget was passed, 3rd year in a row, so get off the high horse and ask YOUR president to get the job done, he wanted it, he promised the sun, moon and stars to various target groups to get the job, then he won, so maybe it's time for him to get to work, he's getting paid quite a lot and gets tons of fancy perks too boot, so how about he start to earn it?

[Sonny]

@Tralee Um...sorry to return your "bubble-busting" favor...But if its YOU & your republican cronies in the congress who are the ones crying about "this entitlement" & that "entitlement" ---and how everyone (except republicans) are so-called "takers:...And its you who want to throw people out into the streets and YOU who don't give a flying damn about whether or not Americans are starving, and YOU who don't care if Americans go without healthcare---Then NO...We (and that includes the President of The United States) are NOT going to do YOUR dirty work for you...If you want to see people die in our streets.....YOU (and your counterparts in the congress) are going to have to be the ones who make those cuts....NOT us!!!

[classychazy]

@Sonny. Well said!!!

[Sonny]

@Tralee Doesn't change one bit---what I wrote earlier...If you want to decimate people's lives...YOU do it...NOT the President, or anyone else...YOU (the republican party)..

[jessejaymes]

You have to start with the Military then move on to welfare fraud by the billing companies and scams, then you need to institute workfare (watch those rats desert the sinking good ship Lollipop) and finally get rid of Corporate welfare. Bingo.

[Sonny]

We already have "workfare" it never went away under Obama that was just a right wing myth and talking point.

[Cheenoguy]

@Sonny
I think Jesse was speaking about something different.(And please feel free to correct me Jesse). I think he was advocating for something similar to what the Green Party wants. Instead of picking up a welfare and/or unemployment check when you lose your job you pick up your temporary work assignment for which you receive benefits.

[jessejaymes]

@Cheenoguy I see no reason welfare people shouldn't help out by sweeping their own gutters on their street, picking up trash, cleaning abandoned lots or buildings. I have no problem with helping people in need out, but I do have a problem with them not giving anything back for that help.

[jamie91]

@jessejaymes and screw the guy whose job it is to pick up garbage?

[jessejaymes]

@jamie91 Oh come on Jamie.; Where do you live? I have yet to see a poor neighborhood (and that would be most the people on assistance) that isn't covered in trash. The garbage collectors don't pick up trash on the street. They pick up the cans or the tubs or whatever that is allowed curbside. I'm not talking about them.; I'm talking about LITTER.

[Fitz]

Just out of curiosity , what spending cuts do democrats overwhelmingly support?

[jessejaymes]

Cut Military Spending to a reasonable pay out to contractors. There is no excuse for 300.00 hammers. Cut foreign aid. Cut out the Congress yearly pay raises and their ability to write hot checks at the Senate Bank for 5,000.00 a day 6 days a week without being held accountable for it. Stop paying people not to grow food. You do support a free market economy, right? Stop building Nukes. We have enough to vaporize the earth 7-9 times over. Stop giving welfare to non citizens. Period. Institute workfare for everyone on assistance. Even the disabled, which our laws say you have to hire if they want to work. Well if they don't want to work then no assistance. Everyone can do something, even the retarded or paralyzed. Stop all corporate welfare. There is no excuse to be subsidizing Tobacco growers. Or oil companies. Or anyone else. Stop paying for Dental and Hearing for Welfare. Seniors on SS who paid in their entire lives don't get those so why should people who have never paid in?

Disband all but one of the many internal "security agencies". I don't care who you keep but it's ludicrous to have the FBI, Homeland Security, NSA, DEA, ATF and numerous others when they work against each other more often than not. Roll them all under one tent. Do the same with the CIA and other groups that work outside the country (allegedly).

Pass a law that once the Supreme court has validated an issue as law that it cannot be revisited by outside money forcing the USA govt to defend these laws on yearly basis at a cost in the billions. There is no excuse for the amount of money that is spent on abortion over and over every single year. And we do it on guns, abortion, religious monuments and everything under the sun. I bet our govt spends a trillion a year on revisiting the same issues year after year in the courts. ENOUGH.

[Thunderchicken]

Who's for some cliff diving?(Note to self; Call Goldline.)

[IMAQT]

The whole basis for this article is bogus. To say that X does not want to cut a specific program does not equate to "they don't support ANY cuts". The writer could stand a course in basic logic.

[Dan_Tien]

I guess this shows that Republican leadership is really working for the few, the proud, the people who bought them positions of power.

[Denizen_Kate]

Exactly right, Dan. The conservatives in power don't listen to their own constituents, just to each other.

[Thunderchicken]

@Denizen_Kate

They may be Republicans but they're far from conservative.

[marine1]

I think they should start with their own salaries and work thrugh the rest of their bureaucracy then move on to the pork and finally their waste and fraud.Lead by example you half wits.

[tomincali]

first off even thinking of cutting medi-care is thinking of robbing from a program paid in by those who use it and need it. i hear alot about cutting ss and medicare yet nothing on cutting from those able bodied folks who have never in a life time contributed yet have taken from others as a way of life. how about starting with career do nothings?

[MRMacrum]

I say bring on the cliff. Let's do this thing and move on. I have survived this long. Can't see me not surviving the "cliff". I'm just fed up with the whole thing. Do nothing losers in Congress have become paralyzed by special interests and the big business sector who do not have the country's well being at heart. If some of the moneyed interests decide to pull up stakes and move on, so be it. Good riddance.

[carolo]

Republicans claim they want cuts but they are only targeting cuts to Social Security (that has nothing to do with the debt) and Medicare and Medicaid. They don't seem interested in Defense Cuts or subsidies to Big Oil. It does not help that Bush passed Part D prescription drugs with NO MONEY to fund it or that he passed another Bill that takes away our right to negotiate the price of drugs. Medicare does need work but redoing it can not be done in two weeks. Boehner is up for re-election as Speaker Jan 3. I believe he's more worried about his job than this mess we're in.

[Thunderchicken]

Social Security has been part of the general fund for some time now. As for big oil sunsidies, can you please tell me specifically what they are and how much they cost.

[carolo]

I read a poll yesterday that 68% now support the Bush Tax Cuts ending and even Cooperate owners and CEO's are contacting the White House to end them. They say the Fiscal Cliff will hurt them more than ending the cuts will.

[Denizen_Kate]

Instead of contacting the White House, these corporate owners and CEOs should be screaming at Boehner.

[Vance1]

The radical socialist democrats haven’t passed a budget in more than three and a 1/2 years and not a single appropriations bill has been brought to the floor in 2012 by these liberal idiots.

Obama and the liberals seek to sink this country

[thejimbo]

Have anything nicer to say about the other side? Just curious...

[WilliamWallace]

@jamesmitchell Yes. Smile, wait for flash! Lol

[DARSB]

Under the Constitution, all spending must originate in the House. You will, of course, recall the House is under GOP control. You may also recall the Budget Control Act of 2011. Or not: facts don't seem to be your strong suit.

[bsking]

and this is how they bait there low information voters with crap like this story.
just look at the responses... it's typical.

instead of trying to teach the low information voter how the negotiation process works, the fourth branch of government the media , will begin a systematic effort to confuse them with crap like this instead of pointing out and teaching them it is up to the Democrats to offer cuts in this negotiation because the Republicans have offered to raise taxes like Obama wants.

so the story should have been written to help the low information voter understand that Obama wanted taxes raised ... that was his demand

the Republicans wanted spending cuts... that was their demand

eat your side makes their demands then they negotiate.

so far the Republicans has offered Obama is tax raise

....... I'll just wait and see if any of you can figure out the rest of the equation

[thejimbo]

Teacher, I need help! ;)

[sevenSecrets]

Don't blanket it with partyline semantics. Congress is in charge of the budget. Just goes to show republicans can't even agree with themselves...

[Realthinker]

What conservatives support is entitlement reform. There are also many redundent programs in the government bureaucracy that can be eliminated.
Sooner or later both houses of Congress, together with a sitting president are going to have to make some serious, possibly unpopular decisions without partisan gamesmanship. We cannot continue down the road we are on. How much money does our current spending really require?
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/how_mu...

[Thunderchicken]

Damn the math!! ;-)

[Realthinker]

@Thunderchicken Terrifying, isn't it? It's no wonder so many "leaders" are running from what has to be done. We have to stop digging the hole now.

[Thunderchicken]

@Realthinker

Yeah we don't have any leaders. Just panderers.

[Tralee]

I support cuts across the board, raise the age for Medicare and SS would be a good and sensible start. People are living to at least the late 70's and early 80's anymore, leaving the retirement age at 65 is crazy. Cut entitlements, not the "cut" that Obama did and admits to, "cutting" 716 Billion from Medicaid is not a cut when it's sent over to pay for another entitlement, Obamacare. Funny about this, all during the election process Obama strongly denied cutting anything from Medicaid, now he freely admits that the "cut" to Medicaid of 716 Billion should be counted as a cut in entitlements, even though he took it from "Peter" (Medicaid) to pay "Paul" (Obamacare). So, which is the lie, did he or didn't he? Can the man even tell the difference anymore between a lie and the truth or, as with so many Narcissistic personalities, whatever they believe or say, becomes the "truth"?

[Mia]

First of all this liberal article's headline is false. On washington wire website is a list of 70 budget cuts proposed by house republicans. I couldnt find a list of proposed cuts from house dems or obama.

[Pflack]

I would support a 50% cut on military, and taking the cap off FICA. Now that would probable

[Pflack]

I would support a 50% cut on military, and taking the cap off FICA. Now that would probable take care of a least half the problem if not more.

[AceLuby]

And here is the REAL reason why the GOP keeps asking Democrats to make the cuts for them. Their constituents don't want them, they know it, and if the 'other guy' is the one suggesting the cuts, they can politicize it to their advantage.

[FollowTheMoney]

There are hundreds of political payoff programs on the books we don't hear much about. We don't hear about them because they are piggy back legislation meant to pay off PAC's etc..