GOP Is Out-Of-Step With Public On Budget

The charts above were made from information contained in the results from a recent YouGov Poll, taken of 1,000 nationwide adults on July 24th and 25th. I'm a bit irritated that the poll did not give a margin of error (which is normally 3 to 4 points on a poll of this size), but YouGov was one of the most accurate polls in the last presidential election.

The poll results verify what numerous other polls have shown -- that the congressional GOP is out of step with the desires of the American public when it comes to cutting the budget. The congressional GOP would like to cut everything -- everything except military spending, which they want to increase. They even want cuts in Social Security and Medicare, which are working just as designed and keeping millions of American seniors out of abject poverty.

In fact, there is only one budget cut where the American people agree with those congressional Republicans -- foreign aid. Unfortunately, the foreign aid budget is incredibly small (about 1% of the federal budget), and eliminating it entirely wouldn't put much of a dent in the budget deficit.

On several other things the congressional GOP want to cut, they don't even have the support of a majority of their own party. A majority of Republican voters oppose cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Education. And although the Republican base would support cuts to food stamps (SNAP program) and housing assistance for the poor, huge majorities of the general public oppose those cuts also.

And the congressional GOP is even out of step with the American public on military spending. While the Republicans want to increase the already bloated military budget, Democrats and Independents would not -- although the slight edge opposing an increase in military spending among the general public is undoubtably within the margin of error. Suffice it to say there is as much support among the public for decreasing the military spending (or leaving it a the current level) as there is for increasing it.

The one slightly disappointing result from the poll came when people were asked if they would support a government shutdown by Republicans to defund Obamacare. Although a plurality (48%) opposed that and only 34% said they would support it, about 19% (or about 1 out of 5) said they were unsure. It seems that a significant portion of the public still has not made up their minds about Obamacare yet.

I suspect they would quickly turn against the GOP if that defunding of Obamacare was successful, and they lost some of the good things Obamacare is bringing -- like letting kids stay on their parents insurance until age 26, the eliminating of caps on spending for illnesses by insurance companies, the requirement that 80%-85% of insurance premiums go to spending on patient medical care (which is reducing premium cost), the elimination of pre-existing conditions for insurance coverage, the creation of state exchanges to provide low-cost insurance, and the providing of free contraceptives to women.

Frankly, I hope the Republicans keep pushing for these cuts to the budget -- especially for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, food stamps, and housing assistance. Because the more they oppose these programs, the more the general public will see that the Republicans don't have the best interests of Americans in mind -- and the more that public will be interested in voting them out of power.