American voters think the impending across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, are what it will take to get the federal deficit under control — because there’s no other way Congress will do it. In addition, less than half think the cuts will have a negative effect on the country. […] Read more »
Americans’ Reactions to Sequester Include ‘Bad,’ ‘Disaster’
Americans are much more likely to use negative words or phrases — including “bad,” “disaster,” and “God help us” — than positive ones to describe their views on the federal government budget sequester. [cont.] Elizabeth Mendes, Gallup Read more »
Majority Says Sequestration Will Harm the Economy
A majority of Americans, 56%, believe the nation’s economy will suffer this year if the federal budget sequestration scheduled for Friday goes into effect. At 44%, slightly fewer Americans believe sequestration will harm their own finances, while a nearly equal percentage say it will not. [cont.] Lydia Saad, Gallup Read more »
Public polls fail us on sequester
The public polling community is letting us down with generally sketchy work on the sequester. We are going down a dark path we have never traveled before, and none of the surveillance I have seen prepares us for the event and public reactions. With some exceptions, the public polls seem […] Read more »
Republicans at odds with the public
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) recently opined that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would be unable to keep his job if he compromised with the president and the Democrats on sequestration. The senator knows a great deal more about internal GOP dynamics than I do, but his assessment carries with it a […] Read more »
Public wary about sequester cuts, but Obama in stronger political position than GOP
With automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to begin Friday, majorities of Americans believe they aren’t a good idea and say the contentious budget negotiations make them less confident about the U.S. economy, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Despite those findings, a majority still supports Congress moving […] Read more »