• Government Spending,  Polling,  Texas

    Poll Watch: Americans Blame Wasteful Government Spending for Deficit – Favor Spending Cuts

    According to the latest Gallup Poll.

    The large majority of Americans say spending too much money on unneeded or wasteful federal programs is to blame for the federal budget deficit, while 22% say the deficit is a consequence of not raising enough in taxes to pay for needed programs.

    These results are based on an April 20-23 USA Today/Gallup poll. Given a forced choice, Republicans almost uniformly place blame for the deficit on too much federal spending, rather than a shortage of tax revenue. Majorities of independents and Democrats agree, albeit by somewhat smaller margins.

    And, Americans generally favor government spending cuts versus increasing taxes as a way to reduce budget deficits.

    Here is the poll chart.

    This is not surprising and why the Tea Party has been so successful in framing the economic issues, particularly during the 2010 elections. Americans WANT government spending cuts and prefer that to taxes.

    End of story.

    This question asks Americans to choose among five ways of reducing the federal deficit, ranging from a total reliance on spending cuts to a total reliance on tax increases. The responses cluster at the “spending cuts” end of the spectrum. About half (48%) of Americans say reducing the deficit should be done mostly or only with spending cuts. Another 37% say it should be done equally with spending cuts and tax increases. Eleven percent say mostly or only with tax increases.

    Thus, overall, 85% of Americans explicitly favor spending cuts as at least part of the solution to reducing the federal deficit, with more than half of these favoring only or mostly using cuts. This compares with 48% who explicitly favor tax increases as at least part of a deficit reduction strategy — a number consisting mostly of those who want an equal emphasis on spending cuts and tax increases.

    The major partisan distinctions in response to this question reflect the choice between mostly/only spending cuts versus the equal use of spending cuts and tax increases. Republicans are most likely to favor the former; Democrats, the latter. Independents’ views are between these two extremes. Relatively few Americans of any partisan identification favor mostly or only using tax increases to reduce the deficit.

    What does this all mean?

    Americans are likely to tell their elected representatives to cut spending rather than rely on increasing taxes. And, it seems the Democrats in Congress can read the polls and are veering away from the tax increase mentality of the Obama Administration.