Sharp Partisan Differences Linger
UTICA, NY - Majorities of likely voters approve of all but two of six major proposals included in President Barack Obama's budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a new Zogby Interactive survey finds.
Cuts to Low Income Home Energy Assistance and reduction of Community Block Grants for local activities such as affordable housing, anti-poverty and infrastructure both fall short of overall majority support, but both proposals are supported by Republicans.
The poll, conducted from February 14-16, outlined major Obama budget proposals and asked voters if they strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove or are not sure. The combined percentages of those who strongly or somewhat approve of each proposal are shown in the table below.
|
Approve of. |
All Voters |
Democrats |
Republicans |
Independents |
|
5-year overall freeze on total discretionary spending outside of security |
65% |
71% |
62% |
61% |
|
Reduce Defense Dept. funding by $78 billion to achieve zero real growth |
58% |
88% |
28% |
56% |
|
Eliminate a dozen tax breaks for oil, gas & coal companies to offset costs of clean-energy initiatives |
55% |
83% |
27% |
53% |
|
Expiration of 2001 & 2003 tax cuts for families making more than $250,00 per year |
53% |
85% |
17% |
55% |
|
Reduce by one-half funding Community Block Grants for local activities such as affordable housing, anti-poverty and infrastructure development |
49% |
25% |
74% |
48% |
|
Reduce by one-half funding the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program |
43% |
23% |
65% |
42% |
Pollster John Zogby: "President Obama's budget proposals poll well with voters overall, but the sharp partisan differences found in our survey show how difficult it will be to find agreement with the Republican majority in the House. Independent voters are mostly positive toward Obama's proposals, which should give him some political leverage. The only proposals not getting majority support from independents deal with cuts impacting the poor, raising the question of what Obama gained politically by including them. "
The interactive poll of 1,823 likely voters has a margin of error of +/-2.3%. A sampling of Zogby International's online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the U.S., was invited to participate. Slight weights were added to region, party, age, race, religion, gender, and education to more accurately reflect the population.