The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% of voters nationwide believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending as a job-creation tool.

Only 15% of voters hold the opposite view and believe that increasing government spending is the better approach.

However, while voters overwhelmingly think cutting taxes is the better approach, they also overwhelmingly expect Congress and President Obama to take the opposite approach. Seventy-two percent (72%) say the nation’s elected politicians are more likely to increase government spending than cut taxes. Only 14% think they’ll cut taxes instead.

The nation's unemployment rate stands at around 10 percent, and in early December, 67% of adults said they expected the unemployment rate to be the same or higher in a year’s time. LINK

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Republicans and unaffiliated voters strongly believe that tax cuts are the best tool for job creation. Democrats are evenly divided. Among those in the president’s party, 33% say tax cuts are best, 30% say increased spending, 23% say neither, and 13% are not sure.

Regardless of what they think is best, most Democrats believe Congress and the president will increase spending. More than 80% of Republicans and unaffiliated voters agree.

Over the years, most voters have consistently held the belief that tax cuts are good for the economy and that spending hikes are not.

Obama campaigned on a promise to cut taxes for 95% of all Americans, but only six percent (6%) expect their taxes to decline during his presidency.

Concerns about spending played a major role in the unpopularity of the congressional health care plan. Most Americans believed the proposal would cost more than projected, increase the federal deficit and lead to middle class tax hikes.

Just 37% of voters now believe it is even somewhat likely that Congress will agree this year on a smaller, bipartisan health care plan.

Democrats from the start have viewed health care reform as the most important of the budget priorities listed by the president in February of last year. Republicans and unaffiliated voters consistently have said the president’s priority should be cutting the federal budget deficit in half by the end of his first term.

Most Americans favor the new effort by the president to recover some of the government bailout money by taxing the nation’s largest banks. However, most only want the banks who received bailouts to pay the tax, and they think other bailed-out institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also should be taxed.

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