The public is just not getting the message if Rasmussen's most recent poll can be believed.

A whopping 62% of respondents think that the stimulus bill needs more tax cuts and less wasteful spending:

With the Senate poised to vote Tuesday on an $827-billion version of the economic recovery plan, 62% of U.S. voters want the plan to include more tax cuts and less government spending.

Just 14% would like to move in the opposite direction with more government spending and fewer tax cuts, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) would be happy to pass it pretty much as is, and five percent (5%) are not sure.

Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly want to see more tax cuts and less government spending. Democrats are more evenly divided: 42% agree with the Republicans, 32% want to pass the plan as is, and 22% would like to see more government spending and fewer tax cuts.

Most conservative and moderate voters want to see more tax cuts. A plurality of liberals say the plan should be passed pretty much as it is.

Unfortunately, they are not going to get their wish. Obama and the Democrats have rejected sensible, targeted tax cuts in favor of a pork-laden monstrosity that few think will work to stimulate anything except donations to the Democratic party.

Here's Obama last week:

Saying his opponents support "tax cuts alone" as a panacea, not to mention "half measures," the president said "those ideas have been tested and they have failed. They have taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars."

The president did not mention that the bill he is proposing would double that deficit.

"The American people have rendered their judgment," the president said, adding, "let's put Americans to work doing the work that needs to be done."

What's that about the American people rendering their judgment? Maybe if you listened to the people every once and a while instead of talking down to them and trying to scare them half to death, you might really find out what they're thinking.

And wouldn't that be wonderful?