A 12-member "super committee" in Congress has the task of finding up to $1.5 trillion worth of reductions in federal deficits over the next 10 years. In the face of our country's $14.6 trillion debt, $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts is inadequate to the point of being absurd.

But to make matters worse, Democrats on the committee will be pushing to make tax increases -- not just spending cuts -- part of the package that the committee will present to the full Congress for an up-or-down vote. The president and Democrats in Congress also want to spend billions more dollars to "stimulate" the economy -- despite the failure of the previous "stimulus" to create the jobs that the administration predicted it would create.

Before Congress and the president go down the destructive path of raising taxes, promoting more "stimulus" and not really getting our spending under control, they might want to consider the views of the American people and a lot of economists.

A recent McClatchy Newspapers-Marist survey found that Americans overwhelmingly favor cutting the debt over more "stimulus" spending. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed said the United States should reduce the debt. Only 33 percent said it would be better to have more stimulus.

Republicans favored debt reduction over new spending by 79 percent to 15 percent. Among independents, the margin was 61 percent to 32 percent in favor of debt reduction. Only Democrats slightly favored more spending versus reducing the debt -- by 50 percent to 45 percent.

Meanwhile, a new survey of hundreds of economists found that they think the best way to reduce deficits is exclusively or primarily with spending cuts -- not tax increases.

The National Association for Business Economics -- made up of economists who practice their profession in the business world -- surveyed 250 of its economists.

Nearly three-fifths said deficit reduction should be accomplished mostly or entirely by cutting spending. Only 37 percent said there should be equal spending cuts and tax increases.

Congress and the president should listen to the American people and to real-world economists, and drop any plans for more "stimulus" spending and higher taxes.