Republicans hope putting Ryan on the GOP ticket will help galvanize public support for his austerity budget. But the American people are looking for a very different agenda, as TDS CO-Editor Ruy Teixeira explains in his latest ‘Public Opinion Snapshot’

In the recently released American Values Survey, conducted by Penn Schoen Berland for The Atlantic Monthly and the Aspen Institute, the public endorses spending more on education and infrastructure while raising taxes on the wealthy as the best route to economic growth (56 percent) instead of lowering taxes on individuals and businesses while cutting spending on government services and programs (42 percent).
The public’s opposition to cutting even less essential government services to provide such tax cuts was made clear in a mid-July CBS/New York Times poll where 66 percent opposed that approach, compared to just 30 percent who supported it.

It’s highly unlikely that Ryan, Romney or any Republican ideologue is going to transform the public’s deeply-held beliefs about fairness in tax policy and government’s important role in addressing human needs. As Teixeira concludes, “If Conservative politicians’ crusade to cut spending and preserve tax cuts for the wealthy may charge up the conservative base. But the broader public seems distinctly unenthusiastic.”