Barnes said tax issues help Republicans; Fox News and other polling says otherwise
SUMMARY: On Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, claimed that the issue of taxes helps Republicans politically. However, the most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, which was cited during the program's "Political Grapevine" segment and during its newscast, indicates that a plurality of voters believes that Democrats "would do a better job" than Republicans on the issue of taxes.
On the February 9 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Fred Barnes, executive editor of The Weekly Standard, claimed that the issue of taxes helps Republicans politically. However, the most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, which was cited during the program's "Political Grapevine" segment and during its newscast, indicates that a plurality of voters believes that Democrats "would do a better job" on the issue of taxes.
During a debate on how terrorism has helped Republicans politically, Barnes said, "When the issue is taxes, [it] helps Republicans." But a February 7-8 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll (with a margin of error of +/-3 percent) found that 43 percent of voters believed that Democrats "would do a better job" on the issue of taxes, as opposed to 38 percent for Republicans. Guest host Chris Wallace and Fox News chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle both mentioned the poll on the show, although neither cited the question regarding taxes.
Other polls have yielded similar results. A February 1-5 Pew Research Center poll that asked which party would do a better job on the issue of taxes found that 46 percent picked Democrats, while 35 percent chose Republicans. The margin of error was +/-3 percent. And a January 22-25 Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll with a +/-3-percent margin of error found that 43 percent of Americans said Democrats would do "a better job of handling taxes" than the president, while just 34 percent favored President Bush.
From the February 9 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
ANGLE: In the latest Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll, people were asked if the president should have the power to authorize electronic surveillance without warrants. Fifty-four percent said yes. Only 40 percent said no.
[...]
WALLACE: And now, some fresh pickings from the "Political Grapevine." A new Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll matching up potential candidates for the 2008 presidential election has Republicans coming out on top.
[...]
BARNES: Look, Republicans both think that the war on terror is the most important thing that the government has to do now, and they also realize it's helpful for them politically. I mean, it's always been, Chris. I mean, think of domestic issues. When the issue is taxes, helps Republicans. When the issue is health care, helps Democrats. Now when the issue is terror and the terrorist threat against America, it helps Republicans.
I think historically speaking, Barnes is correct that the tax issue has benefitted Republicans and Republicans have run successful campaigns labeling Democratic opponents as "tax and spend" Democrats.
However, the current administration has not practiced fiscal responsibility, which is supposed to be the "signature" of conservative politics, instead they have practiced "tax cut and spend more" irresponsibility. The public has caught on to this, apparently, by the latest poll figures.
"Want to buy some wood?"
And lots of Bush supporters will just forget what you just told them.
None of them remember what Kerry said right before Bush said that.
Barnes wasn't speaking historically.
Taxes are an old Republican standby, that Democratic policy revolves around taxing the public to death and spending wastefully. Not gonna work this time. Tax breaks for rich people and funneling billions to rich corporations isn't a fiscal policy. It's playtime for the elite at the expense of the middle class, and poor, and it's bankrupting the country. I don't know how else to quantify this issue except by saying, to the public, "If you're middle class or poor, your taxes are going to stay the same or go down. Rich folks, rich corporation--I see you Exxon Mobile, don't try and hide!--it's time to pay up!"
What’s so bad about that? The rich supporting the society from which they BENEFIT THE MOST. And to all the Jr. economists out there: no, it won’t depress the economy! Large corporations aren’t trimming the workforce because the economy is strong. It’s feeble no thanks to policies that favor supply to the detriment of demand. The solution? Shifting the tax burden to the supply-side to free up $$$ in demand sector. Last I checked, the economy was INCREDIBLE in the 1990s because we had a good balanced policy. Raise taxes on the rich, from 35% to 39.4%, and tax credits for the working poor. Here is Bush’s “sensible tax program”: eliminate the elite 39.4% bracket, lower dividend taxes to 15% without phase-outs (to make the ultra-rich pay the full 35% rate), capital gains taxed at 15% without phase-outs, under-funded state programs that force local taxes up, eliminating 17 billion in student loans and increase Medicare co-pays to fund more elite tax breaks…but not enough to pay for them therefore we must BORROW MORE $$$ from foreign investors.
How is any of this “good government”?
The results that Angle cites seemed off to me, so I looked at the actual question from the poll:
"Do you think the president should or should not have the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor electronic communications of suspected terrorists without getting warrants, even if one end of the communication is in the United States?"
Does anyone else find this more than a little misleading? The question asks about "suspected terrorists." EVERYBODY thinks "suspected terrorists" should be monitored; the FISA court is in place not to protect the rights of "suspected terrorists," but to ensure the president doesn't abuse his powers.
Look at what happens when you ask this question, as the AP/Ipsos poll did:
"Should the Bush Administration be required to get a warrant from a judge before monitoring phone and Internet communications between American citizens in the United States and suspected terrorists, or should the government be allowed to monitor such communications without a warrant?"
Here, 50% say get a warrant, 48% say don't. The polls were taken at the same time.
Fox News: We decide, then ask poll questions.
Sorry to bring this up, but if you take the time to read the pdf file with the poll, it had many incriminating statistics but one of them was not taxes. What surprised me was that both Fox News and Media Matters misused the numbers in the Fox poll.
If you look at the question: Asking which political party would do better Republicans or Democrats on taxes, the poll of 900 individuals show that 38% entrust the republicans, 43% entrust the Democrats, and 18% entrust equally or don't care.
So yes, Media Matters got the wording right saying that a
plurality
of the 900 peoples polled belived that the Democrats would do a better job at taxes. But statistically the numbers don't hold up, especially when you put the +/-3% error into effect. Then the percentages really became usless.
I think there are much better statistics to be pulled out of this poll. But props to Media Matters for going after Fox News for it's appearent skewing of it's own numbers. Fox News completely misrepresented the numbers. I hope I helped keep everyone in check.