Support waning on the Pork-A-Palooza

As the Senate sets itself to take up the "stimulus" plan passed by the House, AKA the Pork-A-Palooza Generational Theft Act of 2009, Gallup is reporting that support for the bill is not as high as it was when it was first announced: (HT to Captain Ed)

A strong majority of Americans (75%) want Congress to pass some version of President Obama's economic stimulus plan, but this group is split down the middle on whether it should be passed as is or with major changes.

Naturally, support for the plan is highly partisan. Although few Republicans favor passing the plan as it is, more than 4 out of 10 say it should be passed with major changes, leaving only a minority of 35% of Republicans who say the plan should be rejected altogether. A majority of Democrats, on the other hand, say Obama's plan should be passed as is. Independents mirror the attitudes of the nation as a whole, split down the middle about passing it as is or with major changes.

Thirty-one percent of Americans are following news about the stimulus plan very closely, with another 46% saying they are following it somewhat closely. Those who are most closely following news about the plan differ little from the overall national average in terms of their attitudes about the plan.

Regardless of their attitudes about the stimulus plan, Americans remain significantly concerned that the plan would not stimulate the U.S. economy quickly enough.

Moreover, Americans have fairly low expectations for the plan's ability to turn around the economy. Just 17% say the plan would make the economy a lot better, while another 47% say it would make the economy a little better. Seventeen percent (including more than a third of Republicans) go so far as to say the plan would make the economy worse.

follow-up question provides further evidence of a lack of confidence that the plan will have a dramatic and immediately positive impact on the economy. The 64% of Americans who say the plan will make the economy at least somewhat better were asked whether this would occur this year, or whether it would take longer than that. An overwhelming majority -- 85% -- of this group chose the more negative option that the plan would not produce positive effects until after this year. Thus, putting these two questions together, the data show that only 10% of Americans say the economy will get better this year as a result of Obama's stimulus plan.

There is even less sanguinity about the impact of the plan on Americans' personal lives.

Only 44% of Americans say the plan will make their families' situations at least a little better, while the majority of 53% say the plan will not have an effect at all, or will actually make their financial situations worse.

We hope that Obama's key financial advisers, and those in Congress, are paying attention to these numbers. It's clear that people have lost faith in the "stimulus" plan. This explains why the Democrats seemed so anxious to get it passed as quickly as possible. The more this sits out in the sunlight the worse it reeks. It's like a rotting corpse that's been sitting out in the Arizona summer. It stinks to high Heaven, and the Democrats seem reluctant to take a stand against it. Eleven Democrats -- true Blue Dogs standing on fiscal principles -- opposed it in the House.

Michelle Malkin calls it a "crap sandwich." That's what the Democrats are trying to ram down the nation's throat. This "stimulus" will do nothing to help the economy unless the help the Democrats speak of is that which wrecks the economy, creates hyperinflation (they are printing the money for this Pork-A-Palooza), and tanks the world's economies int he process. Barack Obama should listen to the people on this issue, and he should listen to the Republicans. Without the necessary tax cuts -- across the board cuts -- to reinvigorate our economy, this recession will deepen, and get worse as time goes by.

Publius II