There's a new poll out from the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which shows that nine in 10 voters said that during the campaign they encountered information that was misleading or false. Obviously, in order to know you're encountering misleading information, you have to have some idea of what the truth is. But apparently not. As I've noted before, most of the misinformation benefits Republicans:
- Though the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concluded that the stimulus legislation has saved or created 2.0-5.2 million jobs, only 8% of voters thought most economists who had studied it concluded that the stimulus legislation had created or saved several million jobs. Most (68%) believed that economists estimate that it only created or saved a few jobs and 20% even believed that it resulted in job losses.
- Though the CBO concluded that the health reform law would reduce the budget deficit, 53% of voters thought most economists have concluded that health reform will increase the deficit.
- Though the Department of Commerce says that the US economy began to recover from recession in the third quarter of 2009 and has continued to grow since then, only 44% of voters thought the economy is starting to recover, while 55% thought the economy is still getting worse.
- Though the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that climate change is occurring, 45% of voters thought most scientists think climate change is not occurring (12%) or that scientists are evenly divided (33%).
- 40% of voters believed incorrectly that the TARP legislation was initiated under Barack Obama, rather than George Bush
- 31% believed it was proven true that the US Chamber of Commerce spent large amounts of money it had raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates
- 54% believed that there were no tax cuts in the stimulus legislation
- 86% assumed their taxes had gone up (38%) or stayed the same (48%), while only 10% were aware that their taxes had gone down since 2009
- 53% thought that the bailout of GM and Chrysler occurred only under Obama, though it was initiated under Bush
On some of these, you can argue it's simply a lack of information, allowing people to fill in beliefs that cohere with their pre-existing prejudices. For instance, Democrats spent barely any time talking about the fact that the stimulus was one-third tax cuts, so it isn't so surprising that people don't know about them. But other things require willful self-delusion. It's become fashionable on the right to believe that the world's scientists are engaged in a massive conspiracy to deceive the public about climate change, but 33 percent of people think scientists are equally divided about it, and another 12 percent think the majority of scientists think it's not occurring? Sheesh.
-- Paul Waldman
