Wake Up If You Are Under The Age of 30!

An interesting USA Today/Gallup poll was published today about the opinions on the Ryan and Obama deficit reduction plans that are currently in the news.  Overall, it is almost an even split with 44% of those surveyed favoring the Obama plan and 43% siding with Ryan and the Republicans.  What is most telling is that the highest percentage favoring the Ryan plan are those 65 years and older.  This is exactly opposite or what you might think going in. In fact, if you look at all age groups of age 30 or older, they favor the Ryan plan by 6 percentage points across the board. 

If it were not for the age group of 18-29, who favor the Obama plan by 53-30 over Ryan, the Republicans would have a clear advantage on this critical issue.  What does all of this mean?

• The Republicans, behind Paul Ryan, have taken a bold move, taken early punches from Obama and the Democrats and they are still standing.  This could spell trouble for the Obama stategy of demonizing Ryan and the Republicans on this issue.  Voters do not seem to be buying it based on this poll.  We may have reached the point where people are starting to be more concerned for their children and their country than they are for themselves.  This is a hopeful sign.
• The youth are prime pickings for more education and outreach from the Republicans on this issue.  It is ironic that this is the age group that will pay the biggest price for maintaining the status quo but are the biggest supporters for doing so.  This group has to leave the theoretical world that many live in and come face to face with THE REAL WORLD.  Where is MTV when you really need them?
• This poll may also point to important battles yet to come in the 2012 elections.  Obama clearly needs to roll up enormous margins in the youth vote or he may have problems.  Can he energize this voter segment like he did in 2008? 
• The Independent voter is still about evenly split between the two approaches.  They are still up for grabs.  That is why I still argue for the Republicans to come out for a conditional future tax increase, if and only if, spending is first brought down to at least 20% of GDP as part of a budget deal proposal.  See my post "My Mother Solves The Budget Deficit".  Remember, no dessert until you eat your vegetables!  This would leave the Democrats in a very difficult position on any budget discussions compared to a reasonable Republican approach.
• Most importantly, these polls results mean that not enough BeeLine readers are under age 30.  Someone needs to tell them to start paying attention.  It is only their future.