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Friday, May 11, 2012

Survey: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Defense Cuts

As Congress struggles to rein in the federal deficit, a new survey finds Americans preferred to cut defense spending more than any other program.

In a new survey that not only asked for opinion, but also briefed the respondents on the federal budget, Americans came to a bipartisan conclusion: 67 percent of Republicans and 90 percent of Democrats supported cutting the defense budget.
And by quite a bit.

Here's how the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), one of the three non-profits who conducted the survey, boils it down:

"The average total cut was around $103 billion, a substantial portion of the current $562 billion base defense budget, while the majority supported cutting it at least $83 billion. These amounts both exceed a threatened cut of $55 billion at the end of this year under so-called 'sequestration' legislation passed in 2011, which Pentagon officials and lawmakers alike have claimed would be devastating.

'When Americans look at the amount of defense spending compared to spending on other programs, they see defense as the one that should take a substantial hit to reduce the deficit,' said Steven Kull, director of the Program for Public Consultation (PPC), and the lead developer of the survey. 'Clearly the polarization that you are seeing on the floor of the Congress is not reflective of the American people.'

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't recommend defense cuts , but , I do recommend better control of their budget and spending.

Anonymous said...

i would like to correct your title of "Survey: Americans Overwhelmingly Support Defense Cuts". quite honestly i think thats a little off. it closer to the truth if the title was "Survey: Americans Overwhelmingly Support OFFENSE Cuts"

Anonymous said...

yeah right, how about the lazy ignorant leeches get off their asses and work to make this country better. My taxes are for defense of this country not the leeches!

Anonymous said...

dittos to 12:12. this survey is off base. there are other surveys that say what 12:12 says. all depends on the wording...hmmmm

Anonymous said...

There's always room for trimming budget spending in all areas, but not in our missile defense systems at this point in time.