I have a friend who used to be an editor for the New York Times. He said that every year at the beginning of the election season, the editors would agree that this time they would focus on the issues rather than the horse race, and every year they would focus on the horse race. So this time we were told again and again that the polls showed the Republicans were going to win the election. We were not much told what the polls disclosed about the voters' positions on the issues. We were left free to think that the voters wanted smaller government, lower taxes for all, and an emphasis on reducing the budget.
That, after all, is what the Republican were preaching. But it turns out that the voters do not favor the Republican agenda as Katrina vanden Heuvel makes clear in a wonderful column in the Washington Post.
Only 37% of the American people favor extending the Bush tax cuts to those making $250,000 or more. The voters are almost evenly divided on the relative merits of spending to create jobs versus reducing the deficit. When voters were asked to choose between “a jobs agenda including rebuilding infrastructure, extending middle-class tax cuts and investing in science and technology versus a program modeled on the Republican pledge of cutting spending, extending all tax cuts and providing small businesses with a tax cut, voters favored the jobs agenda over the Republican agenda by a 53% to 41% margin. And 80% favored the launching of a “five-year strategy to revive manufacturing in America," including "providing companies with incentives to make it in America, ending tax breaks that reward moving jobs abroad, enforcing 'buy America' provisions on government spending, countering unfair trade and currency practices by China and others, investing in research and technology to foster new products and markets."
This is a far cry from the Republicans trust the market approach. I must say that it is a little early to forecast an emerging Republican dynasty.
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