American Public Shows How it Would Cut the Budget Deficit

I  found a new organization and website, one which I agree with wholeheartedly on their view of how citizens have been disenfranchised from their government.  See their website at:
Program for Public Consultation

They completed a study recently on how the public would deal with the federal budget deficit.  Through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, on average, respondents cut the discretionary budget deficit projected for 2015 by seventy percent.  I'll bet you will be surprised at some of the actions those in this study opted to take.  You can also take your shot at how you would reduce the deficit, at their website.

An equally interesting result came from a recent poll of Americans, in which only two in ten said their country is "is run for the benefit of all the people" while eight in ten said the country is "pretty much run by a few big interests looking out for themselves." Other democracies have similar views.


This problem seems to be getting worse. When this question was first asked to Americans in 1964 two thirds said that the country was run for the benefit of all the people, but this number has been descending ever since.

People are also frustrated with the level of partisanship in government decisionmaking. 64% chose the position "The parties fight for their narrow interests, the will of the people is ignored, and the results do not serve the people."

Low trust in government is highly correlated with the perception that government is not responding to the will of the people. Presented the argument that "Government tends to get bogged down in partisan conflict and distorted by the influence of moneyed interests. Thus, it is necessary for the public to have a stronger voice in shaping government decisions," 78% found it convincing.

This does not mean that people think that government should follow public opinion in a lock-step fashion. Asked how much influence the will of the people should have on government decisionmaking on a scale of 0 to 10, the mean response was 7.9--a high level, though well below 10. But asked how much influence the people are having, the mean response just 4.0. More than 8 in 10 said the public should have greater influence.