Deep in the Heart of Taxes

As I was reading TaxProf Blog this morning (thanks again Professor Caron!) I saw a poll on "priorities that I thought was interesting. PEW takes these periodic soundings that may actually mean nothing but may also be accurate (how is that for a bold statement).

The results were as follows -

What ways would you favor to reduce the deficit? The respondents are given three ways - increase taxes, reduce military spending and reduce domestic spending. The last version of this was done in March. In the current survey just 26% of our fellow Americans would raise taxes (down from 31%), while 36% would reduce military spending (up just a tiny bit) and 47% would lower domestic spending (down from 54%). What that says to me is a) the American people are less convinced of our political leader's ability to make intelligent decisions but the largest fraction of voters would cut domestic spending first. What does that say about Pork Busters? How do you think Congress will respond? What do you think the American people would do if there were a serious discussion in Congress about spending reductions/tax increases? I think they might handle it a bit better than our politicians.