Misleading Polls and the Ryan Plan

[Geee]

Weekly Standard:

There is an awful lot of rampant speculation right now, much of it masquerading as confirmed fact, about how well the House Republican’s proposed Medicare reforms are going over with the American public. But there is very little hard evidence. There have only been two polls, to my knowledge, that have described and then asked about the Paul Ryan-authored Republican plan since President Obama invited Ryan to sit in the front row for his April 13th deficit reduction speech, during which Obama lambasted Ryan’s proposal.


REP. PAUL RYAN ADDRESSES WISCONSIN ARMY NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIERS.

That was the same speech in which Obama offered a “framework” to save “$4 trillion” in deficit spending. But his “framework,” were it actually a budget, would actually increase deficit spending over the next decade by about $1 trillion more than under current law — and current law already puts us on course to spend about $7 trillion that we do not have. His proposed deficit spending, moreover, is on top of the $14 trillion in national debt that we already have on the books, roughly a third of which has been accrued since Obama’s election.

The House Republicans’ proposed Medicare reforms are part of their 2012 budget, which would reduce deficit spending by $4.4 trillion — and 46 percent — in relation to Obama’s budget, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The two polls that have summarized and then asked about the GOP proposal since April 13th appear to show, more than anything, that at this very early stage in a battle that will likely extend until the next election, the actual wording of the question makes a tremendous amount of difference.