Record percentage of Americans says defense spending 'about right': Gallup

The Hill ^ | 03 16 2020 | Zack Budryk

[yesthatjallen]

The portion of Americans who believe the nation’s defense spending as “about right” has reached a record high, at 50 percent, compared to 31 percent who say it is too much and 17 percent who say it is too little, a survey from Gallup found.

Those saying spending is about right has nearly doubled from 27 percent in 2016, most of it migration from those who said spending was too little, which fell from 37 percent to 17 percent.

The shift in opinion is largely driven by Republicans, who were far less likely to believe the U.S. was not spending enough on defense during the Obama administration. Twenty-three percent of Republicans believed U.S. spending was about right in 2016, compared to 72 percent who believe the same in 2020. About 23 percent of the increase occurred in the past year, according to Gallup.

SNIP

[yesthatjallen]

Those saying spending is about right has nearly doubled from 27 percent in 2016

That would mean the American people believe Trump got defense spending "about right".

[Candor7]

IMHO we need more money spent on the US Space Force, and on our bio weaponry research.

[FewsOrange]

The percentage of Americans who actually know how much we spend on defense is probably quite low.

[Pining_4_TX]

If they knew how much waste there is in the defense department and how political defense spending is, they would realize we spend and waste an obscene amount of taxpayer money. There are so many different, obscure departments and programs that they continue to be funded when nobody even knows what they do or that they even exist. It is no different from any other huge bureaucracy.

[Svartalfiar]

Really, defense spending is too high, but it’s the lowest of the priorities for cutting. (And Dems always take someone saying that the wrong way.)

There’s a lot of waste and lack of accountability, and with proper custodianship across all levels, we could probably trim 20% and maintain currents levels of readiness and ability.