The public is confused about how Congress and the president should erase huge federal budget deficits. That should come as no surprise. Average American, consumed by the worries of day-to-day life, generally haven't immersed themselves in the intricacies of the nation's budget. That's why, as Utah lawmakers no doubt would agree, the nation is a republic, not a pure democracy.
All this means is that the nation's representatives need to exhibit leadership, and that they need to muster the eloquence to persuasively explain to the American people what they are doing.
We're heartened that Republican House Speaker John Boehner says he is insistent on crafting a budget that cuts the big three entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, as well as military spending. The three entitlements are growing on their own and rapidly consuming all federal revenues, and the Pentagon could use a dose of tightening and accountability, despite ongoing wars. Any serious student of the federal budget knows there is no other way to get things under control. Without such moves, the nation is on a trajectory toward insolvency.
But cuts to entitlements would be extremely unpopular, as recent opinion polls have shown. A recent survey by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News found that less than a quarter of Americans would support cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Significantly, this opinion cut through ideological bounds. Even self-professed tea party adherents opposed cuts to Social Security by a 2-to-1 margin. Instead, most people seemed perfectly willing to put more taxes on the rich and to take away their deductions and benefits, including their entitlement benefits.
It's easy to understand why people feel this way. Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt structured Social Security so that the current generation of workers would be funding the benefits for the current set of retirees, the fact remains that today's retirees generally spent a lifetime contributing to the program and now feel entitled to receive something in return. Medicare is popular because it has become the clearest way to take care of health problems into old age, with few viable alternatives available. However, there is no way the nation can continue providing these programs in perpetuity without either raising taxes or severely reducing benefits.
That leads to another interesting poll question. As a New York Times/CBS News poll found earlier this year, 70 percent of Americans believe the deficit is a "very serious" problem, but most people also do not think they should have to pay higher taxes to bring it down. At the same time, however, they would consider a national sales tax or higher gasoline taxes.
It reminds us of the Jordan School District, which decided to commission an opinion poll in 2009 when faced with difficult budget decisions. The answer the public gave was, essentially, don't raise taxes, don't increase class sizes, and for heaven's sake, don't cut any of the programs we like.
That sort of confusion begs for real leadership. The political stakes are high, but the cost of failure would be much higher.