Again via Wonkblog (who maybe should get like a "Frequently Linked" card from me) comes the results from a survey conducted by a marketing firm hired by the National Academy of Social Insurance. And the results are in, when surveyed respondents support raising the payroll tax and lifting the payroll tax cap far more than cutting benefits.
Of note about this study, the surveyors explained policies before asking for their preferences, which is to say the answers aren't quite as arbitrary as some other polls and surveys would be. To me, this ties back again to President Obama's second inaugural address, the popularity of social safety net programs, and now some survey numbers suggest people are willing to pay more to keep it.
One final add-on that connects to my first post today: respondents were also asked if they thought Social Security was in crisis with 54% responding that they thought it was. When the surveyors explained that raising Social Security taxes by 1.4% would guarantee the program for 75 years, the number of respondents thinking the program was in crisis dropped to 26%. Pundits are ginning up panic, again, when there is no real need for it.
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