A Scott Rasmussen National Survey found that a majority of voters believe that America is being taken advantage of by its allies, with the United States being expected to pay more than its fair share of defensive alliance costs. A strong majority also believes that it would be appropriate to ask European nations to pay a larger share of the cost
Additionally, a majority of voters also believe that the United States has been provided more military assistance to Ukraine than the European nations.
Key Findings:
58% believe that America’s allies take advantage of our nation and expect the U.S. to pay more than its fair share of alliance defense costs
- 19% believe they pay their fair share
- 23% are not sure
- This includes a majority (74%) of Republicans and a plurality (44%) of Democrats.
- Majorities or pluralities across all genders, age groups, races, and political affiliations believed that America is being taken advantage of.
60% believe that the U.S. military should focus exclusively on the mission of protecting our nation instead of being used for nation-building activities.
- 25% strongly favor
- 35% somewhat favor
- 15% somewhat oppose
- 7% strongly oppose
- 18% are not sure
- Majorities in favor of this proposal were found across all age groups and genders.
- Both Republicans (64%) and Democrats (63%) also favored this proposal, although Independents did not.
41% believe it is possible to slow the growth of military spending without putting our national security at risk.
- 33% say that it isn’t
- 26% are not sure
- Democrats hold this view by a margin of 58% to 23%.
- Republicans believe the opposite, that it is not possible, by a margin of 42% to 33%.
69% believe that it would be appropriate to ask European nations to pay a larger share of the cost for European security to slow the growth of U.S. military spending.
- 13% say no
- 18% are not sure
- This includes majorities across all races and age groups, with older age groups being relatively more likely to be in the affirmative.
60% correctly believe that the United States has provided more military assistance to Ukraine than the European nations, based on what they know.
- 38% say the US has provided much more
- 22% say the US has provided somewhat more
- 6% say that Europe has provided somewhat more
- 2% say that Europe has provided much more
- 8% say that both have contributed roughly the same amount
- 24% are not sure
- Majorities across all educational levels believed that the US gave more military assistance to Ukraine than European nations, with pluralities in all categories believing it was much more.
This Counterpolling™ survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on July 6-8, 2022. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 2.8 percentage points. This survey was paid for by RMG Research, Inc. as part of the service provided for our Gold Circle Members.