"Global Investors Rebuff Republicans in Poll Showing 2-to-1 Say Raise Taxes" is the headline over a Bloomberg News article about a Bloomberg poll of a sample of its own worldwide customers.
Here's what the poll actually asked: "Do you think it is or is not possible to bring down the U.S. deficit substantially without raising taxes?" Thirty-three percent answered "is possible," and 64% answered "is not possible."
But it should be obvious to anyone other than a Bloomberg News editor that asking whether something is "possible" is different than asking asking whether something "should" happen. I think the government should bring down the deficit substantially without raising taxes, but I don't think it's going to be possible so long as President Obama is in the White House and the Democrats have a majority in the Senate. My opinion isn't a rebuff of Republicans, it's a rebuff of the Democrats.
It's not just the headline but the lead paragraph of the Bloomberg article that spins this point. The article begins, "Global investors, by an almost 2-to-1 majority, believe the U.S. government won't be able to substantially cut its budget deficit without raising taxes, rejecting a core stand of congressional Republicans."
It's not until the 20th paragraph of the news article that the reporters make the following stunning admission: "Investors are split over whether Obama or congressional Republicans offer the better budget solution, with 39 percent favoring the president's approach and 38 percent that of the Republicans. Still, there are strong regional differences. U.S. investors favor congressional Republicans' position in the budget deadlock over Obama's by 62 percent to 24 percent." [Emphasis added.]
This isn't the first time Bloomberg has put a really bad and biased headline over one of its poll stories; a previous example is here.