FACT CHECK: Obama stretches poll findings on debt

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON – You might say President Barack Obama cut himself some extra margin of error when he claimed 80 percent of Americans want the debt crisis solved with a mix of tax increases and spending cuts.

Polling does suggest, as Obama said, that Americans overall and even Republican voters are open to higher taxes as part of the solution. But claiming support from 8 in 10 people was a reach.

A look at his statements on Friday about polling and how they compare with the actual findings:

OBAMA: "You have 80 percent of the American people who support a balanced approach. Eighty percent of the American people support an approach that includes revenues and includes cuts. So the notion that somehow the American people aren't sold is not the problem."

THE POLLS: A Gallup poll, cited by the White House as the main basis for Obama's statement, actually found that 69 percent supported tackling the deficit with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. An additional 4 percent favored tax increases only — a group that does not endorse Obama's "balanced" approach but could reasonably be counted on his side. That brings his support to 73 percent at most in that poll.

Obama can get closer to 80 percent, but only by counting those who don't belong in that group: people who declined to give an opinion or volunteered an idea of their own to reduce deficits.

Overall, the poll found Americans favor spending cuts much more than tax increases, while supporting a mix of both.
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So much for the American people being "Sold..."