Public would blame repugicans for budget impasse, wants tax increases

A strong CNN/OCR poll for the President and Democrats in Congress on the “fiscal cliff,” in terms of what the public wants out of the talks, and who they’d blame if the talks go south.In a nutshell, the public wants tax increases as part of the bargain, by an overwhelming majority, and they would blame the repugicans more than the President should a deal not be struck.

The Public Wants Tax Increases as Part of the Bargain

67% of the public wants tax increases as part of the fiscal cliff bargain, including strong support among men, women, whites, non-whites, Democrats, Independents, and even repugicans.
Independents support including tax increases as part of the bargain by 60-34 , and even repugicans support tax increases by 52-44.  Even conservative repugicans support some tax increases by 51-45.  Those are devastating numbers – the repugicans in Congress are more extreme than conservatives in their own party

The Public Will Blame the repugicans if Talks Fail

45% blame would blame the repugicans if talks fail.  What’s interesting here is that Independents would blame the repugicans as well.