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Just 52% Now Want to Avoid Going Over Fiscal Cliff

While the failure of House Speaker John Boehner's “Plan B” sent shudders through the stock market and Washington’s political elite, it had little impact on public expectations.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe it is at least somewhat likely that Congress and the president will reach a deal to avert the December 31 “fiscal cliff” of big tax increases and automatic across-the-board spending cuts. The survey was conducted on Thursday and Friday night, meaning that just over half the survey was conducted after Republicans failed to find the votes for their Plan B to raise taxes on millionaires only. There was no significant change in public expectations before or after the legislative debacle.

Additionally, public expectations have changed little since Election Day. The number who think a deal is likely has stayed consistently between 49% and 51% prior to the latest results. The consistency of public opinion stands in marked contrast to the roller coaster assessments coming from “sources” in Washington. Just 17% of voters nationwide think a fiscal cliff deal is Very Likely. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The Rasmussen Challenge has a winner! 

The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on December 20-21, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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