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Tea Party Nation? Not So Much.

A Vanity Fair poll asks which "first step" people would favor to balance the budget. It seems we are all Dennis Kucinich now:

This is worth keeping in mind if the United States reaches a point of near insolvency. Imposing any kind of political pain may be unpopular, but the right's preferred fiscal adjustment is vastly less popular than the left's. The constituency for entitlement cuts -- which is the sine qua non of any serious reduction in the size of government -- is 7% of the population. Which is to say, actual small government conservatism -- as opposed to opposition to unspecified waste or a misunderstanding of the size of the foreign aid budget -- is essentially nonexistent at the popular level.