Large majorities of Americans believe the government taxes and spends too much, which hurts the private sector.
WHY IT MATTERS –President Joe Biden’s proposed 2024 budget uses tax increases to lower the federal deficit rather than reducing government spending.
ITS THE SPENDING, STUPID –A recent poll by Scott Rasmussen asked Americans which statement is closer to their view.
- 17 percent –The main problem with government finances is that the government doesn’t receive enough money
- 76 percent –The main problem with government finances is that the government spends too much money
- 7 percent –Not sure
FEELING THE PINCH – The poll also asked if taxes these days are higher than they have normally been, lower than normal, or about the same?
- 62 percent – Higher than normal
- 7 percent – Lower than normal
- 25 percent – About the same
IMPACT ON THE PRIVATE SECTOR– The poll also asked if American’s agree or disagree with the following statement: “As government commands more of the economy, private sector investment has less room to facilitate long-term growth.”
- 25 percent– Strongly
- 39 percent– Somewhat agree
- 13 percent– Somewhat disagree
- 6 percent– Strongly disagree
- 18 percent– Not sure
BOTTOM LINE– Americans prefer spending cuts to higher taxes to fix the government’s fiscal woes.
GO DEEPER –
Fox Business– Business taxes rising just as US economy heads into choppy water
NBC News– Poll: Americans want less government spending, but more in key sectors
This Counterpolling™ survey of 1,000 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on March 23-March 24, 2023. 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 +/- 3.1 percentage points.