Americans Prefer Social Security Upper Income Benefit Reductions to Tax Hikes

Conn Carroll / October 19, 2010

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein has used a new Gallup poll showing that 77% of Americans believe “the cost of the government’s major entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare, will create major economic problems for the U.S. in the next 25 years” to produce the following headline:

Americans prefer tax increases to benefit cuts.

Problem is, that just is not the choice respondents were given. Here are the actual top line questions produced by Gallup: (more…)