Majority Want to Cut Government Spending, But Not THEIR Spending

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By Harris Interactive, Special for US Daily Review.

While many polls have shown that large numbers of people want to reduce “government spending” and reduce the budget deficit, a new Harris Pollfinds that only rather small minorities of the public want to cut most of the biggest federal government programs. Only 12% of the public want to see a cut in Social Security payments, 21% want to cut federal aid to education and 22% want to cut federal health care programs. The only programs of the 20 listed in the poll that majorities of Americans want to cut are foreign economic aid (79%), foreign military aid (74%), subsidies to business (57%), spending by regulatory agencies (56%), the space program (52%) and federal welfare spending (52%).

The poll also finds that Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to want to cut many government programs and thatTea Party supporters are particularly supportive of cutting specific programs

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,056 adults surveyed online between February 6 and 13, 2012 by Harris Interactive.

In addition to the services which majorities of the pubic do not want to cut, pluralities (but not majorities) oppose cutting federal housing programs (by 50% to 40%), scientific research (by 50% to 40%), defense (by 49% to 42%), farm subsidies (by 46% to 42%), and food stamps (by 49% to 43%).

Trends over time

The Harris Poll first asked these questions thirty-two years ago, in 1980, towards the end of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. At that time substantially more people wanted to cut all these areas of government spending than do so today. For example 23% wanted to cut Social Security payments (compared to 12% now), 65% wanted to cut spending on food stamps (compared to 43% now), and 59% wanted to cut Federal highway financing (compared to 25% now). In spite of the current concern about the size of the budget deficit, far fewer people today want to cut specific government programs.

The Different Opinions of Tea Party Supporters and Partisans of the Two Parties

Unsurprisingly Democrats and Republicans have somewhat different opinions on these issues. Far more Republicans than Democrats want to cut some, but not all, of these programs. For example, Republicans are much more likely to favor cutting federal welfare spending (72% compared to 36%), food stamps (61% vs. 28%), pollution control (59% vs. 21%), federal job training programs (47% vs. 18%), health care (37% vs. 10%) and federal aid to education (35% vs. 9%). On the other hand Democrats are much more in favor of cutting defense spending than are Republicans (54% vs. 27%).

Tea Party supporters are even more likely to favor cutting government programs including food stamps (66%), federal housing programs (65%), spending for mass transit (56%), health care (44%) and aid to education (41%).

So What?

These polling data point to the different language and messages that are, and will be, used by Republicans and Democrats in this election year. Republicans will talk about cutting spending and reducing the budget deficit, with references to foreign aid, welfare and food stamps, while Democrats will accuse the Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare, and education. Who will get the better of this debate remains to be seen.

TABLE 1
CUTTING GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS
“Below is a list of different areas of federal government spending. For each, please indicate if you would favor a major cut in spending, a minor cut, no cut at all, or would you increase spending in this area?”

Base: All Adults

	FAVOR CUT (NET)	Major cut	Minor cut	OPPOSE CUT (NET)	No cut in Spending	Increase in spending	Not at all sure
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Foreign economic aid	79	53	26	12	10	2	9
Foreign military aid	74	46	27	17	14	4	9
Subsidies to business	57	27	29	31	24	7	12
Spending by the regulatory agencies generally	56	26	31	28	23	5	16
Space programs	52	23	29	39	26	13	9
Federal welfare spending	52	26	25	39	32	7	9
The food stamp program	43	19	24	49	36	13	8
Farm subsidies	42	20	22	46	35	11	12
Defense spending	42	16	26	49	35	14	9
Federally funded scientific research programs	40	14	27	50	33	17	10
Federal housing programs	40	16	24	50	35	15	10
Pollution control	37	14	23	53	36	17	10
Spending for mass transportation	35	12	23	54	32	22	10
Federal aid to cities	33	10	22	57	43	14	10
Federal job training programs	32	11	21	58	34	23	11
Revenue sharing with states and cities	26	9	17	58	46	12	16
Federal highway financing	25	6	20	65	42	23	10
Health care	22	8	13	70	34	36	8
Federal aid to education	21	9	12	70	34	36	9
Social security payments	12	4	8	80	50	31	8

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 2
CUTTING GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS BY POLITICAL PARTY
“Below is a list of different areas of federal government spending. For each, please indicate if you would favor a major cut in spending, a minor cut, no cut at all, or would you increase spending in this area?”
Summary of those saying “Favor major cut” or “Favor minor cut”

Base: All Adults

	Total	Political Party			Tea Party Supporters
	Total	Rep.	Dem.	Ind.	Tea Party Supporters
	%	%	%	%	%
Foreign economic aid	79	85	72	85	89
Foreign military aid	74	73	71	79	77
Subsidies to business	57	66	54	55	67
Spending by the regulatory agencies generally	56	70	44	60	76
Space programs	52	52	56	52	51
Federal welfare spending	52	72	36	54	74
The food stamp program	43	61	28	46	66
Farm subsidies	42	43	41	49	52
Defense spending	42	27	54	44	31
Federally funded scientific research programs	40	54	29	43	58
Federal housing programs	40	59	25	42	65
Pollution control	37	59	21	39	61
Spending for mass transportation	35	48	23	39	56
Federal aid to cities	33	48	20	37	54
Federal job training programs	32	47	18	33	53
Revenue sharing with states and cities	26	34	19	27	40
Federal highway financing	25	32	22	26	37
Health care	22	37	10	22	44
Federal aid to education	21	35	9	24	41
Social security payments	12	13	9	14	19

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 3
CUTTING SPECIFIC GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS – TREND
“Below is a list of different areas of federal government spending. For each, please indicate if you would favor a major cut in spending, a minor cut, no cut at all, or would you increase spending in this area?”
Summary of those saying “favor a major cut” or “favor a minor cut”

Base: All Adults

	Favor Cut (NET)				Change 1980- 2012
	1980	2008	2011	2012	Change 1980- 2012
	%	%	%	%	%
Foreign economic aid	82	74	75	79	-3
Foreign military aid	77	69	69	74	-3
Subsidies to business	69	62	51	57	-12
Spending by the regulatory agencies generally	72	53	56	56	-16
Space programs	66	49	54	52	-14
Federal welfare spending	69	52	51	52	-17
The food stamp program	65	43	40	43	-22
Farm subsidies	53	44	42	42	-11
Defense spending	34	35	41	42	+8
Federally funded scientific research programs	51	35	42	40	-11
Federal housing programs	54	39	41	40	-14
Pollution control	49	22	37	37	-12
Spending for mass transportation	42	28	35	35	-7
Federal aid to cities	58	33	34	33	-25
Federal job training programs	NA	NA	NA	32	NA
Revenue sharing with states and cities	53	30	28	26	-27
Federal highway financing	59	24	31	25	-34
Health care	37	12	24	22	-15
Federal aid to education	37	17	21	21	-16
Social security payments	23	8	11	12	-11

Note: Please note that in 1980, this survey was conducted by telephone

Methodology

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between February 6 and 13, 2012 among 2,056 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of Harris Interactive.

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The Harris Poll® #24, March 1, 2012
By Humphrey Taylor, Chairman, The Harris Poll

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world’s leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American and European offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us – and our clients – stay ahead of what’s next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.