When You Get To Specifics, Americans Like What Government Does

Between the president's legal obligation to submit a budget proposal in February and the media's insatiable hunger for stories with eye-catching, click-tripping conflict, we're awash in reporting about Washington's battle over federal deficits.

But, for the second time in less than a month, a major public opinion survey reminds us that Washington's political class — including the newcomers who don't realize they're members of the club — is out of touch with the American people.

The top economic worry of Americans, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey, is not the deficit. It is jobs — by a margin of more than two to one. Last month's New York Times/CBS News opinion survey produced similar findings.

These findings, however, are not likely to change the debate in Washington. Congressional Democrats, nervous about their losses in November's elections, have let House Republicans define the terms of the discussion. Democrats find themselves reduced to arguing about the size and distribution of spending cuts, instead of challenging the obsession with short-term deficits and concentrating on long-term economic challenges.

Deeper in the Pew survey's results is information with the potential to redirect the focus and possibly alter the outcome of the battle. What the Pew surveyors found, like the New York Times/CBS researchers before them, is that Americans do not want to reduce federal spending.

Conceptually, Americans are OK with cutting spending to reduce deficits, but when the questions get more specific, the picture changes completely.

When asked about 18 different areas of federal spending — everything from agriculture, education and Social Security to scientific research, anti-terrorism and environmental protection — Americans said spending levels should stay the same or increase. And they said so by huge margins: two to one, four to one, even seven to one in some areas.

Some examples:

— 81 percent of Americans said financial aid for college students should be held at present levels or increased; only 16 percent said it should be cut.

— 71 percent said spending on health care should stay the same or increase, versus 24 percent who said it should be reduced.

— 75 percent favored equal or greater spending for rebuilding roads and bridges and other infrastructure projects, as opposed to 21 percent who favored reductions.

So it goes: 91 percent want equal or greater spending on veterans benefits and services; 73 percent take the same position on scientific research and energy programs; 85 percent for public schools; 76 percent for domestic anti-terrorism defense.

A couple of areas ran somewhat counter to the pattern.

For example, only 50 percent of Americans backed maintaining or expanding spending on "economic assistance to needy people" overseas. Twice as many favored reducing spending for those programs as those who favored increasing it.

About a third of Americans supported increased defense spending, but an equal number favored reducing it. Another third said it should hold at current levels.

The point is, once you claw past the posturing and the rhetoric, Americans actually value the specific things their government does.

At his news conference on Tuesday, President Barack Obama began using specific images in his answers to budget questions. "If we think," he said, "that we have to take care of our veterans when they come home and not just salute on Memorial Day but we actually have to work with folks who have post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, well that requires services that are very labor intensive and expensive."

He questioned whether Americans really want to "cut millions of young people off when it comes to student loans that help kids and families on their college education" or cut "infant formula to poor kids."

The Republicans' fire-in-the-eyes, slash-and-burn approach to the deficit clearly plays well to their fervent base and juices up fundraising by interest groups. It feeds the echo chamber of political bloggers.

But if Mr. Obama and the Democrats make honest use of specifics, they may be able to tap into Americans' honest appreciation for the true worth of government programs.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

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