This week, ConservativeHome polled 820 conservatives identified by YouGov for our Republican Panel. They were asked about what Congress can do to reduce the deficit. They were also asked about their confidence in new and returning House Republicans to hold a tough line on spending.
When it comes to America’s long-term deficit problems, conservatives tend to prefer spending cuts to anything else as a way to provide a fix.
- 56% - cut spending across the board
- 27% - cut spending from all government budgets except the military
- 10% - pass a balanced budget amendment
- 3% - cut taxes
- 3% - fix Social Security and Medicare so they don’t pay out more than they take in
- 1% - raise taxes on the wealthy
- 1% - cut spending primarily from the defense budget
The interesting thing about these results is that entitlement reform – making sure Social Security and Medicare are solvent – registers such a small percentage of respondents. Despite Paul Ryan’s Roadmap and the message of last fall’s deficit commission, there is still quite a large disconnect between entitlement reform and deficit reduction, even among Republican voters.
When it comes to how confident conservative Republicans are that new and returning congressional Republicans will be tough on spending, respondents are more confident in the new faces that have just moved into their offices on Capitol Hill.
When asked how confident they are that the new crop of Republicans will stay true to their word to cut wasteful spending, responses were as follows:
- 45% are somewhat confident that the majority of them will remain true to their word
- 18% are very confident that the majority of them will remain true to their word
- 19% think roughly the same number will stay true to their word as will break it
- 5% think there is a slight chance a majority will break their word
- 10% think there is a big chance a majority will break their word
When asked how confident they were that returning Republican congressional members would work hard to cut spending, responses were as follows:
- 42% are somewhat confident they will work hard to cut spending
- 25% are not too confident they will work hard to cut spending
- 12% are not at all confident they will work hard to cut spending
- 11% are not too confident but not too worried, either
- 8% are very confident they will work hard to cut spending
Respondents prefer the new blood. Whereas only 15% think the new GOP members are likely to break their word on spending cuts, 37% think that returning members will not work hard to reduce spending.
