FAIL: Poll Shows MORE Americans Now Want Bigger Government With More Services In Trump Era

[EasyAce]

By Ben Shapiro
http://www.dailywire.com/news/15720/fail-poll-shows-more-americans-now-want-bigger-ben-shapiro

On Monday, Pew released a poll demonstrating that most Americans now want a bigger government with more services
rather than a smaller government with fewer services. The poll, as reported by Allahpundit at Hot Air, shows that Americans
now want more spending on programs ranging from veterans benefits and services to infrastructure, from Medicare to health
care, from defense to environmental protection, from Social Security to assistance to the needy. Public opinion on every
single aspect of government spending has shifted in the direction of bigger government since February 2013.

What happened?

Trump.

As Allahpundit points out:

In 2013, just 28 percent of GOPers supported increased spending on roads and
infrastructure versus 21 percent who wanted less spending on those things. Today the
share of Republicans who support increased spending has nearly doubled to 55 percent,
just six points behind Democrats.

Indeed, the great move in the polls comes not from Democrats but from Republicans, who now seem willing to embrace big
government because President Obama isn’t in charge. That reflects poorly on Republicans, who maintained through the Tea
Party that smaller government was an issue of principle, not convenience.

Was it? There are two possible answers. First, that Republicans weren’t all that concerned with spending until Obama arrived
on the scene, and they don’t care about it now that he’s gone; second, that Republicans have internalized the Democratic talking
point that they can’t win without spending big dollars on particular interest groups.

Either way, smaller government comes out the loser.

And this isn’t Trump’s fault – it’s the fault of Republicans who supported his program. Trump, despite his promises to cut regulations
and fight waste, fraud, and abuse, campaigned as a big government anti-immigration protectionist. He vowed to increase spending
in every area but foreign aid and environmental protection. His most ardent followers knew that he was promising them the help of
big government, and they embraced it. Trump spent the campaign guaranteeing that he wouldn’t touch the great drivers of America’s
debt, entitlement programs – in fact, he said he wanted to expand them.

This is the difference between George W. Bush and Trump. Bush, too, blew out spending. But much of his base opposed him for doing
so. Not so with Trump: he has made the case that he needs to spend in order to win the votes of those in swing states, and many
Republicans have signed on. They’re doing so either out of hypocrisy or out of the pure political calculation that the day of small
government is done, so we might as well have a Republican running a massive government. In either case, that’s a bleak denouement
for a movement built on the back of Ronald Reagan’s foundational belief that government is the problem.

(Italics in the original; bold mine.--EA.)

So it really was big government for me, but not for thee, after all?

[Cripplecreek]

I think the word is hypocrisy.

[Frank Cannon]

Hey Ben. There is a third possible reason for this. The poll is utter bullshit. Beyond Pew telling us Hitlary would win by 7%, the mirror poll from ABC has been proven a fraud.

[LMAO]

Hey Ben. There is a third possible reason for this. The poll is utter bullshit. Beyond Pew telling us Hitlary would win by 7%, the mirror poll from ABC has been proven a fraud.

That's a possibility. However,if  it is accurate, we are in trouble as a nation

[EasyAce]

That's a possibility. However,if  it is accurate, we are in trouble as a nation

You have to remember the trouble into which we were put during the second Bush era---when
he had a full Republican Congress for most of his presidency and, together, they ramped up
big government in ways we would have condemned had it been done by a Democratic
president with a Democratic Congress. This book told the story in 2007 . . .



It's to lament that no significant contingency in the Republican Party seemed to bother reading
it while the runup began to jam a quintessential big-government Republican, John McCain, down
the Republican throat as the presidential nominee for 2008. You know what happened from there.

[Cripplecreek]

And now we're going to do it again only bigger and more grandiose this time.

[geronl]

It is what Trump offered

Bigger Better Gold-plated government

[skeeter]

Hey Ben. There is a third possible reason for this. The poll is utter bullshit. Beyond Pew telling us Hitlary would win by 7%, the mirror poll from ABC has been proven a fraud.

Its pretty transparent by now - just when it looks like some of the left's favorite programs might be eliminated they trot out these polls.

It is probably true, however, that in general most republicans don't seem worried about the growth of government, the reason for almost all our major problems, anymore.

[EasyAce]

It is what Trump offered

Bigger Better Fool's-Gold-plated government

Fixed!

[geronl]

Fixed!

 

[LMAO]

I wouldn't outright dismiss this poll as garbage. People only oppose the "other guy's" program