GOP Is Losing The Spending Debate

The Republican Party knows they are out of step with the American public on many issues, including abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration reform, job creation, raising the minimum wage, and getting more revenues from corporations and the rich. But they decided they could double down on the issue of government spending and make the public ignore those other issues, in the hope of improving the economy.

The GOP has been screaming long and loud about government spending, trying to convince Americans that substantial budget cuts must be made or the country will go bankrupt. They had thought they were winning on the issue of government spending -- and hoped to win the public back by forcing cuts in nearly every government program (except military spending and subsidies for corporations).

But as the graphic above (from a Washington Post/ABC News Poll conducted between February 20th and 24th of 1,021 nationwide adults -- with a margin of error of 3.5 points) shows, they seem to now be losing on the issue of government spending also. While the public is not exactly thrilled with the ideas proposed by President Obama (with 43% in favor and 52% opposed), they are much less happy with the spending program being pushed by the congressional Republicans.

Only 26% of the general public supports the GOP on federal spending cuts, while 67% opposes them. And the numbers look very similar when party regulars are excluded and only the Independents are queried (showing 26% of Independents agreeing and 64% opposed). Those numbers would be bad enough, but the GOP is not even holding it's own base with their hard-hearted approach to government spending. About 51% of rank-and-file Republicans are opposed to their own party's congressional positions (while only 44% approve). That's pretty bad when a majority of your own party turns on you.

The congressional Republicans had put all their eggs (hopes) in one basket (federal spending). Now they find those eggs are turning out to be rotten. They can continue to hold out on the spending issue and continually keep holding the government hostage -- but if they do, they could wake up in 2014 to an electoral disaster.