Today on MSNBC, CNBC commentator Jim Cramer discussed a New York Times poll that shows many Americans want the Obama administration to address the growing budget deficit. Cramer claimed that Americans aren’t buying into health care reform right now because “it just means tax increases, and there’s got to be someone who pays for it.” According to Cramer, the solution that “everybody” wants is for Obama to “go away”:
But until we get the economy moving again, I think everybody wishes that Obama would just kind of go away for a little bit.
Watch it:
If Cramer looked closer at the poll, it also shows that 57 percent of the American public approve of what Obama is doing on the economy overall. Of course, Cramer is someone who claimed that Obama’s policies have resulted in “the most, greatest wealth destruction I’ve seen by a president” and is known for his irresponsible financial cheerleading (e.g. “Bear Stearns is not in trouble”). Maybe it’s not Obama who Americans want to “just kind of go away for a little bit.”
Transcript:
SCARBOROUGH: Hey, Jim Cramer, let me ask you a quick question about a stunning poll — I know you guys have been talking about it for the past hour. But a stunning poll the New York Times has this morning suggesting that Americans are more concerned about deficits than stimulus. Don’t you think this puts the Obama administration behind the eight ball on health care? You talk about keeping it under a trillion dollars — I think it has to be lower unless they pay for it.
CRAMER: Well, I think that Americans — These are all sub-rows of issues. This is all about taxes, and there’s a belief that until the economy recovers, we simply can’t afford tax increases, a la what happened in 1937 in this country. And when they hear health care reform, it just means tax increases, and there’s got to be someone who pays for it. And the under a trillion dollars, it is over many years as Ron Brownstein said, it just makes it at least somewhat palatable.
But until we get the economy moving again, I think everybody wishes that Obama would just kind of go away for a little bit.