Friday, January 15, 2010

Guess What? Michiganians Support Tax Increases

This is going to blow the conservatives' minds. A new study released by the Kellogg Foundation shows that a majority of Michiganians support a broad range of tax increases.

The polling found:

• Support for increasing the sales tax increased from 37 percent to 51 percent and was opposed by 9 percent after deliberations.

• Support for boosting the income tax went up from 27 percent to 45 percent, and opposed by 20 percent.

• Support for cutting business taxes increased from 40 percent to 67 percent.

• Backing for increasing the beer and wine tax was high before and after discussion, from 66 percent to 68 percent.

"The public is willing to sacrifice, willing to invest, willing to pay the cost. However they demand transparency, accountability and different results," said Anne Mosle, vice president of the Kellogg Foundation

Now, mind you, this wasn't the usual reactive poll. A group of 314 people were invited to Lansing for a weekend to engage in and participate in a discussion of the topic and the poll was taken at the end of the process.

"This was an unprecedented experiment. We put the entire state in one room under conditions where it could think" about the economic crisis, said James Fishkin, director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford, in a teleconference with the media today.

The deliberative poll, he said, is an effort to use social science to reveal what people think when they're informed and engaged. Participants broke into discussion groups to delve into the issues, and they were given pro and con arguments to consider.

So, what does this information do to the famous right wing talking point that people are not willing to pay more taxes? I think it destroys that myth, once and for all.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who cares? Let them raise taxes and see how happy they are. How much worse can you make Mich? Everyone that gave a shit left the state a long time ago. We Texans will take your talent all day long. And we have been for the last 10 years.

DJ said...

Chris, we all know you're not living in Texas. Knock it off.

Anonymous said...

President Obama is reportedly planning to ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press (AP). The request would push the Department of Defense (DOD) annual budget beyond $700 billion for the first time ever.

Most of the additional spending will go toward the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. The Pentagon is currently deploying more than 30,000 troops that the president ordered to the war-torn country late last year.

The current administration plans to relay their war strategy to Congress in February. The news source reports that its central military objectives will include winning the current wars and preventing new conflicts while putting an end to terror operations overseas and at home.

Meanwhile, congressional Republicans who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan said earlier in the week that the administration’s approach to the war has confused U.S. troops, according to Newsmax.com.

"We see this preoccupation with prisoners’ rights, both on the foreign battlefield and here at home—it seems to be consuming the administration in the war on terror," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).


Go ahead djtyg call me Chris now.LOL

DJ said...

Well, Chris, so far you've pretended to be me (both in real name and blogger name), have pretended to be a guy from Texas, and have posted as "anonymous" and "Jeff".

It seems like you really, really hate being yourself. And you like being me.

And you're posting a conservative tabloid on here. Whoop-it-dee-doo.

Is your use of my name an attempt to intimidate me or something? It just makes me laugh because you keep committing acts that are illegal. Libel, internet fraud, what's next? Coming to my house?

Well, I doubt you'd have the guts to come to my house.

And no, Chris, I don't even read the stuff you post at. It just shows up on my google alert when you pretend you're me.

DJ said...

I never threatened you, Chris. I'm just pointing out all the stuff you do to try to intimidate others.

It's not working, Chris. It's also illegal.

DJ said...

Also pointing out what a sad, lonely life you must have when you feel like you have to pretend to be other people. Including me.

Bruce Fealk said...

John, Martha Coakley did screw up, no doubt about it. But we lost because we didn't give the people in the middle what they wanted, real reform, real change, liberal change.

Democrats will regroup and hopefully learn an lesson and take care of the middle class, get a better health care bill, single-payer hopefully and real consumer protection and get rid of the massive bonuses at the banks.