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The American people do not want Republicans to compromise on their opposition to any form of tax increase as part of a deficit reduction deal being negotiated with Democrats, veteran Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Sunday.



“The principle of not raising taxes is something that we campaigned on last November and the results of the election was the American people don’t want their taxes raised and they wanted us to cut spending,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “They don’t want compromise."

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January: Most people want to see compromise among political leaders in Washington, a national poll indicates. A McClatchy-Marist Poll said 71 percent of those asked want to see compromise in Washington

February: By a 2-1 margin, Americans want lawmakers in Congress to seek compromise to avoid a government shutdown, according to a new national poll. The USA Today/Gallup survey indicated that 6 out of 10 want the lawmakers to agree to a compromise

March: Bipartisan efforts are brewing to address the government’s budget mess, and most Americans apparently support those efforts. A new poll by Bloomberg indicates a majority of respondents want the two parties to reach a compromise on the budget, avoiding a government shutdown, Politico reports. The survey showed 77 percent of Americans realize spending cuts are necessary to reduce the deficit and want them made while the government remains open. Only 20 percent favor implementing spending cuts even if that leads to a government shutdown.

April: A majority of Americans want congressional lawmakers to seek compromise to avoid a government showdown, according to two new national polls. Fifty-eight percent of people questioned in a Gallup poll released Wednesday said they want the members of Congress who represent them to agree to a compromise budget plan. Recent surveys by the Pew Research Center, the Washington Post, CNN/Opinion Research Corporation and CBS had similar findings.

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Dec 2 2010 CBS poll 26 % of Americans thought tax cut should stay for all. 53 % were for raising above 250 K

May 4, 2011 Quinnipiac University polls In order to reduce the federal budget deficit do you support or oppose - raising income taxes on households making more than $250,000? Support 69 %

June 9 ABC News poll 61% of Americans believe higher taxes will be necessary to reduce the deficit

June 7, 2011 Pew Poll Two-thirds (67%) approve of making more of high earners’ income subject to Social Security tax, and nearly as many approve of raising taxes on incomes of over $250,000 (66%)

April 18, 2011 Gallup Poll 13% of Americans say upper-income people pay too much and 59% believe they pay too little.

About the only time tax raises fall out of majority in popularity is when the poll uses tax raises blankly implying someone is suggesting raising taxes across the board. Technically McCain is right because he words it in a weasel way talking about a plan not proposed. I can only assume when McCain says They and Their he means that only the top 1-5 % and corporations count as American people.

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This morning, Fox News hosted Rep. Allen West (R-FL) to talk about the cuts that the Tea Party wants. In order to frame the discussion as supporting West’s position, which is anti-compromise, the right-wing network cited a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that it claimed showed that most Americans do not want the Republicans to compromise. Host Martha MacCallum claimed the poll showed that “56 percent of Americans say that [Republicans] should stick to their positions.” Watch it:

The problem with the poll that Fox cited is that it doesn’t say anything like what they claim it does. In fact, it appears that they actually switched the numbers around. The poll in question does find that 56 percent of respondents do not want to see the GOP compromise, but the question was directed to self-identified Republicans — meaning that Fox essentially took the number for Republicans and claimed that it represented all Americans.

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Yesterday, USA Today and Gallup released a new poll that found that a whopping 61 percent of Americans oppose efforts like those of Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) to strip public sector unions of collective bargaining rights. The poll also found that only a third of Americans support such a policy, indicating that Walker is pandering to the far-right of the American electorate and is hardly representative of mainstream political thought in this country.

This morning, during a debate about the situation in Wisconsin and collective bargaining rights in general, the Fox News show Fox & Friends referenced the USA Today/Gallup poll. With incredible brazenness, the Fox hosts actually reversed the results of the poll in order to claim that two-thirds of Americans supported Wisconsin-style laws rather than opposed them.

Update: In the final minute of the Fox & Friends episode, Kilmeade issued a correction and made an apology for reversing the numbers.

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