When 62 percent percent of Americans agree that the Republican Party should compromise on budget negotiations, it’s obvious that President Obama is winning the politics of the debt-ceiling negotiations. On the other hand, when 47 percent of Americans say that spending cuts will create jobs – as they did in the most recent Washington Post/ABC News survey – it’s clear that Obama is losing the larger ideological battle over the role of government.
In fact, since March, 6 percent more respondents say that cuts to federal spending would do more to create jobs than cut them. Worse, this result is consistent with other polls; according to the most recent Gallup survey on deficit reduction, 50 percent of Americans would prefer to reduce the deficit with spending cuts, compared to the 32 percent who would like to see an equal mix, and the 11 percent who would prefer deficit reduction with tax increases.
In a sense, we're watching history repeat itself. Like his predecessor Bill Clinton, Barack Obama is willing to shift rightward for the sake of short-term political gain. But even if he comes away from this with higher approval ratings, it will be at the cost of the broader liberal project.
