11/03/10 Baltimore, Maryland – We awaken to a bright new day, a spring in our step. For we stand at the dawn of a new era, in which fiscal responsibility is the primary objective of Congress again.
Oh, hell – we haven’t had enough coffee yet to keep up the pretense this morning. Last night on CNN, Wolf Blitzer tossed a softball question to Rep. Eric Cantor, the likely new House majority leader: Name one federal program Republicans will reduce.
Cantor whiffed.
Still, we won’t dismiss the message that voters were trying to send yesterday, however much it will fall on deaf ears.
It’s worth revisiting a poll commissioned by the Peterson Foundation in March 2009 – when employers were shedding nearly 700,000 jobs a month and the S&P 500 stood at the ominous number of 666.
The poll asked a simple question: What do you believe poses a major threat to the nation’s future?
Respondents could say yes to more than one choice, but deficits and debt got the biggest response.
This sentiment hasn’t changed over the following 20 months… as we can see from yesterday’s exit polling. Edison Research interviewed 18,132 voters. They were given three choices for reviving the economy, and asked which they preferred most:
- Cutting the federal deficit
- Spending programs to create jobs
- Tax cuts.
Leave aside the peculiar either-or nature of the question: It’s pretty remarkable that a plurality – four in 10 people – opted for cutting the deficit. Even self-identified Tea Party voters faced with this false choice chose cutting the deficit over cutting taxes.
“I’ve had several opportunities in the last few months to visit cities in the Midwest,” says demographer Neil Howe, who wrote several books with the late William Strauss on the interplay of generations in the United States.
“In each of them, I ask my hosts, what issues really concern local voters in the midterms? And they say, the huge and growing federal deficit. And then I say, yes, of course, sure, but what do they really worry about? And then the hosts say, no, honestly, they are really worried about the country going bankrupt.
“I found these conversations very ominous and very Fourth Turning.”
“Fourth Turning” is the term Howe and Strauss apply to the crises that recur in American society every 80 years or so – the Revolution, the Civil War, the Depression and World War II.
All that underlying unease helps explain why this has become an Internet sensation…
Citizens Against Government Waste – the outfit that puts out the annual “Pig Book” of pork-barrel spending outrages – produced this commercial last month. ABC deemed it “too controversial,” but it’s making the rounds on the 24-hour news and business channels.
It portrays a Chinese lecture hall in 2030, the professor telling his students how major empires fell, including the United States. “Of course, we owned most of their debt,” he says. “So now they work for us.”
Some oversensitive people interpret the ad as China-bashing, and the Chinese government issued a pro forma denunciation. But in “flyover country,” people understand this isn’t really about China.
It’s about “the country going bankrupt”…and the dollar losing whatever value it still has.
Addison Wiggin
for The Daily Reckoning
Addison Wiggin
Addison Wiggin is the executive publisher of Agora Financial, LLC, a fiercely independent economic forecasting and financial research firm. He’s the creator and editorial director of Agora Financial’s daily 5 Min. Forecast and editorial director of The Daily Reckoning. Wiggin is the founder of Agora Entertainment, executive producer and co-writer of I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the 2009 Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature, and was also shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award. He is the author of the companion book of the film I.O.U.S.A.and his second edition of The Demise of the Dollar… and Why it’s Even Better for Your Investments was just fully revised and updated. Wiggin is a three-time New York Times best-selling author whose work has been recognized by The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, Worth, The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as major network news programs. He also co-authored international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt with Bill Bonner.
The Daily Reckoning is your premier source for making sense of the news Washington and Wall Street generate. Each business day, The Daily Reckoning calls on its stable of world-class writers and thinkers to show you how to get ahead.
Start your 100% FREE subscription to The Daily Reckoning today and you’ll get a free research report, “How to Survive the Fall of Social Security.” Simply enter your email address below to get your free report and join over 495,000 worldwide Daily Reckoning subscribers!
We Respect Your Privacy and We will
Never Share or Sell Your Email Address
Hello, USA went bankrupt in the 1930′s so don’t say go bankrupt, cause we been there for over 70 years.
Lets see what those four in ten say when the cuts come…whine, whine ,whine
If the Americans were/are so worried about debt and big government why did onl 6% vote for Dr Ron Paul?
I am sure they want to cut someone Else’s program but my program is just fine . Just like your congressman is bad but mine is good . Since 3 programs make up the majority of the budget time to cut military/ssn/and medicare . If you believe that I got some worthless MBS’s for sell .
With the HUGE percentage of people drawing their paycheck from government (city, county, state, fed etc…) there is no way these voters will agree to have themselves “downsized”.
And the politicians won’t say what needs to be said, or do what needs to be done to fix this. It would be political suicide, and what is their main job? To get re-elected of course! This applies equally to left / right & middle.
The unfortunate part is when the choice makes itself.