Incoherent views on taxes, spending, and the deficit

Bruce Bartlett (who was an economic policy advisor for Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr.) runs through 15 recent polls of the American public's views on taxing and spending.

Some of the most disheartening points:

[T]hree-fifths of voters believe that the budget can be fixed just by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. . . .

[S]upport for cutting spending is largely confined to small programs such as foreign aid, and that people favor increasing spending for big programs such as Social Security. . . .

[O]nly 49 percent of people believe that reducing the deficit will require cuts in programs that benefit them; 41 percent do not. Also, only 37 percent of people believe that reducing the deficit will require higher taxes on them; 59 percent do not.

People overestimate how much we spend on foreign aid, and they underestimate how much we spend on Medicare and Social Security. We want to believe that if we happen to like a program, it doesn't cost too much. "Big government" is bad, so the biggest programs must be the ones we don't like.