Most Americans in new survey support funding increases as Trump admin seeks cuts

Far more Americans support increasing federal funding in key areas than those who favor decreasing funding, according to a new survey, even as the Trump administration seeks sweeping cuts to government spending.

A YouGov survey conducted at the end of February asked respondents whether they support an increase or decrease in government spending in about 40 areas, and in no category did a majority say they wanted the government to spend less.

The only category that comes close is foreign aid — with 49 percent of respondents supporting a reduction in funding, 20 percent supporting an increase in funding, 21 percent supporting the same level of funding and 9 percent saying they do not know.

In every other category, however, a majority supports either keeping funding the same or increasing funding. And in 28 of the 40 categories, at least 50 percent of respondents say they want the federal government to increase funding.

At least 70 percent of respondents support increasing federal funding in six categories — elderly care, at 76 percent; veterans services, at 73 percent; cybersecurity, at 73 percent; health care services, at 72 percent; disaster relief, at 72 percent; and mental health services, at 71 percent.

In each of these categories, a maximum of 6 percent of respondents support reducing funds, and between 15 percent and 19 percent support keeping funding the same.

At least 60 percent of respondents support increasing spending for homelessness services, at 67 percent; food assistance, at 63 percent; infrastructure, at 62 percent; disability assistance, at 62 percent; border security, at 60 percent; and early childhood education, at 60 percent.

Many respondents, however, are critical of the way government spends their funding: 46 percent say the federal government spends its resources “very wastefully,” 29 percent say “somewhat wastefully,” 12 percent say “not very wastefully” and 4 percent say “not at all wastefully.”

The survey reveals a popular phenomenon in Washington, where lawmakers echo their constituents’ complaints about “wasteful” government spending, yet struggle to find areas prime for cutting.

The survey also comes as the Trump administration has launched an effort to reduce the size of the federal workforce and drive out waste and fraud in the federal government. The strategy has been divisive and has given rise to numerous lawsuits.

The survey included 2,259 adults and was conducted Feb. 24-27. The margin of error is 2.7 percentage points.

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