Posted on 04/25/2017 7:35:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
That’s not unheard of, according to Pew, but it’s awfully rare over the last 40 years polling. And it doesn’t seem to be a fluke result in light of yesterday’s NBC poll. That survey found 57 percent saying that government should do more to solve problems and meet the needs of Americans, a 20-year high. Pew asked a different question along the same lines: Do you prefer a bigger government that offers more services or a smaller one that offers fewer services? Result: 48/45. The last time that metric was evenly split was 2008.
Pew drilled down and asked people which services specifically they’d like to see the government spend more money on. Veterans’ benefits? Hell yes. Scientific research? You betcha. Defense? Yep yep yeppers. Among 14 different categories of spending tested, only two — assistance to needy people abroad and the State Department(!) — had more people saying the feds should decrease spending rather than increase it, and the margins in both cases were small. Pluralities or outright majorities favored increasing spending in the other 12. In none of the 14 tested did “decrease spending” attract anything close to an outright majority. As depressing as that is for fiscal conservatives, there’s nothing unusual about it. When Pew ran this same sort of poll four years ago, the results were similar. The difference between now and then is that Americans at least aren’t pretending that they favor smaller government while they’re calling for Congress to throw more money at every problem under the sun.
Actually, there’s something else that’s different too — the trendlines. Check this out.
In every spending category offered (yes, even the forlorn State Department), a greater share of Americans support increased spending now than supported it in 2013. Partly that may be due to a better economy, with people more willing to spend as they feel more secure about growth, but I’m sure it’s also partly due to Republicans getting more comfortable with federal spending under Trump. Case in point: In 2013, just 28 percent of GOPers supported increased spending on roads and infrastructure versus 21 percent who wanted less spending on those things. Today the share of Republicans who support increased spending has nearly doubled to 55 percent, just six points behind Democrats. Leadership matters.
Many, maybe most of Americans’ have been brainwashed. If big government is what they prefer then they want America to fail, go bust and become like Cuba, or Russia, or China or North Korea, or any other evil government.
May the Lord have mercy on their tortured souls.
RE: The National Debt is now $20 trillion.
Yep, and the unfunded liabilities are 5 times that. I wonder if Pew actually started their survey with this statement:
“Given that our national debt is $20 trillion and our unfunded liabilities are 5 times that, do you favor...”
It’s because of who is now in charge of the government...
I think what you get is a splintering effect, where a lot of people who oppose more spending in general nonetheless support more spending on “MY favorite program”.
I saw this two decades ago when I was working with farmers. They put on a great show about being the most rock-ribbed, down-to-earth conservative patriotic Americans. But bring up the subject of cutting their favorite ag subsidy, and katy-bar-the-door, they were ready to go to WAR with you.
Thus Veterans oppose more spending, EXCEPT on veterans programs. The bulge of aging baby boomers lines-up behind Social Security and Medicare spending, etc.
I believe it. Ironically, universal suffrage is suicide for sustainable “self governance,” and is a recipe that favors the worst of human nature. Once half the people figure out they can vote largesse for themselves from the public treasury ... goes the old saw.
Ha ha—I grew up on a farm that was so the case!
Absolute free marketers until it came to their subsidy, which somehow was required given the quick expiration of their product (milk).
Good metric for setting deportation/ immigration limits. No immigration and max deportation until this trend is reversed!!
Anything from NBC is trash. You notice there is no information of where and who was polled.
red
Did they follow up the question with “are you willing to pay for this “free” stuff?”
"Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that guy behind the tree."
That is what happens when Pew poll are taken down to the local welfare agency
Land of the Sheep - home of the slave.
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