Rasmussen finds that the American people are generally favorable toward Barack Obama’s stimulus plan:

Generally speaking, do you favor or oppose the economic recovery plan proposed by Barack Obama?
44% Favor
28% Oppose
27% Not sure

How important is a big federal government recovery plan to the recovery of the U.S. economy?
52% Very important
23% Somewhat important
13% Not very important
5% Not at all important
7% Not sure

No surprise there. But this is interesting:

What will do the most to stimulate the economy– tax cuts or new government spending?
47% Tax cuts
32% New government spending
22% Not sure

Suppose the economic recovery plan changed so that it included only new government spending and there were no tax cuts. Would you favor or oppose an economic recovery plan that included only new government spending?
21% Favor
58% Oppose
21% Not sure

There’s a cottage industry on the Left intended to convince Barack Obama that America has taken a genuine turn to the Left, and that he risks his presidency if he doesn’t take a sharp turn left as well. But can America really be a center-left country if a clear majority favors tax cuts over new government spending? That’s why the greatest threat to Obama’s popularity is listening to the liberals in Congress. If he caves to them — and removes the tax cuts from his stimulus package — he will rightly be seen as having turned away from a majority of the American populace.

And while on the topic of Obama’s stimulus package, I have a question: what happened to all the polls we used to see about the deficit? It seems to me that just a few months ago polls showed that the deficit was a top concern in the minds of the American people. Why aren’t there any current polls examining whether it still is?