Survey says: Keynes is dead a new Reason-Rupe poll finds that Americans are willing to cut spending of all kinds, even in times of crisis.

• Position: Survey

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IN 2008 AMERICANS COULD not get enough of John Maynard Keynes. As the economy tanked, the long-dead 20th-century British economist emerged as one of the most popular men in recession-haunted Washington. Keynesian stimulus spending--massive infusions of cash from the federal government for infrastructure programs, weatherizing, green energy, education, and anything else that came to mind--was going to prevent job losses and get the economy working again. More than $500 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act spending later, unemployment sits at an intractable 9.1 percent, the labor-force participation rate is the lowest since 1983, and the economic prognosis remains bleak.

Three years after the financial crisis, four decades after Richard Nixon and Milton Friedman made the phrase "We are all Keynesians now" part of the popular lexicon, and more than half a century after Keynes died, a national Reason-Rupe public opinion survey has found that Americans are firmly rejecting Washington's favorite economist. In polling conducted in August, a majority of Americans--more than 57 percent--say reducing government spending will "mostly help" the economy. Just one in five believes cutting spending will "mostly harm" the economy.

Voters also support reforms aimed at limiting elected officials' ability to squander money. More than 77 percent of Americans believe the federal government should have a spending cap preventing it from doling out more than it takes in during a given year; 62 percent believe this "strongly." In addition, 69 percent favor (and 50 percent strongly favor) a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. These findings mirror those of a CNN/ORC poll taken around the same time, which shows between 60 percent and 75 percent supporting a balanced budget amendment, depending on how the question is phrased. "Keynesian policy and Keynesian theory is now done," Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared, perhaps a bit prematurely, at a Republican presidential debate in September. "We'll never have to have that experiment on America again."

No matter who takes power next November, Americans are not optimistic that elected officials will stop dishing out dollars, even at a time of runaway deficits and degraded credit ratings. Government spending and debt, along with high tax rates, routinely rank near the top of voter concerns. When asked in the Reason-Rupe poll how to deal with reducing the national...