Question

How U.S. Citizens Want to Balance the Budget, July 2011

Chart: (Survey conducted July 7-10, 2011, with a random sample of 1,016 adults, For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.)

19.
What does this graph suggest about the costs and benefits of balancing the budget?

20.
If most Americans favor cutting spending or raising taxes to balance the budget, why have politicians not taken either of these steps to do so?

Answer 1

20. The fact is that we do not agree on what spending to cut, or whether to cut or increase taxes, or on whom. Unless a majority of the state legislature or the Congress agrees, and the governor or president, also agrees, nothing happens.