June 11, 2009 8:56AM # Public Tires of Wasteful “Stimulus” Spending By [Doug Bandow](https://www.cato.org/people/doug-bandow) --- SHARE The president may believe that he’s created thousands (or is that millions?) of jobs, but the public doesn’t believe him. In fact, [according to Rasmussen Reports](http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/economic_stimulus_package/45_say_cancel_rest_of_stimulus_spending), a plurality of the public wants to drop the rest of the “stimulus” spending while keeping the tax cuts: > Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans say the rest of the new government spending authorized in the $787-billion economic stimulus plan should now be canceled. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 36% disagree and 20% are not sure. > > > … > > > Just 20% of adults say the tax cuts included in the stimulus plan should be canceled while 55% disagree. The stimulus plan includes $288 billion in tax cuts. > > > While there is a wide partisan gap on the question of stimulus spending, there is little partisan disagreement on maintaining the tax cuts. > > > President Obama on Monday vowed to speed up the pace of stimulus spending and said the money will help “create or save” 600,000 more jobs this summer. > > > However, only 31% of Americans believe the new government spending in the stimulus package creates new jobs. Forty-eight percent (48%) say the stimulus spending does not create jobs, and 21% are not sure. This is certainly a better approach for growing the economy. The people are proving to be a lot smarter than their governors in Washington. ##### Related Tags [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).