Cutting Government Spending May Be Popular But Majorities of the Public Oppose Cuts in Many Big Ticket Items in the Budget

NEW YORK, March 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- While many polls have shown that large numbers of people want to reduce "government spending" and reduce the budget deficit, a new Harris Poll finds 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%).

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The poll also finds that Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to want to cut many government programs and that Tea 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

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

    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

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.

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SOURCE Harris Interactive