The American people want government spending cut.
At America’s New Majority Project, we have the views of more than 100,000 people in a database going back to 2018. We have original polling and focus group results. We also track other polls on public policy.
Americans’ desires are abundantly clear in the data.
When asked if they want to cut spending to balance the budget and reduce inflation, 78 percent say “yes,” and only 11 percent disagree.
When asked if there should be a work requirement for able-bodied people getting federal aid, 75 percent say “yes.” Only 14 percent oppose work requirements.
More than 2 in 3 Americans want to cut federal spending (69 percent—including 86 percent of Republicans, 68 percent of independents, and 53 percent of Democrats).
In fact, even if it takes a temporary shutdown, 57 percent want to reduce spending rather than have continued increases (77 percent of Republicans, 57 percent of independents, and 39 percent of Democrats).
All too many U.S. Senate Republicans don’t understand any of this. They want spending as usual and to avoid conflict with President Joe Biden and their Democrat colleagues.
However, when Americans are asked if they would prefer a Republican who wants to cut spending—even if it leads to a shutdown—or a Democrat who wants to increase spending and avoid a shutdown, they favor the Republican candidate by 51 percent to 34 percent. This is a 4 percent increase for Republicans over their current generic ballot (47 percent among likely voters) but a 7 percent drop for Democrats (from 42 percent). Republicans particularly gain among independents (plus 13 percent) and Asian Americans (plus 12 percent).
This desire to balance the budget validates the hard work of House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington and his Republican colleagues. They wrote the Balanced Budget bill and reported it out last week.
The mood that is building in the country was captured last weekend by a Washington Post/ABC News poll showing President Trump beating President Biden 52 percent to 42 percent. Even more shocking, while Trump is ahead of all his Republican competitors for the GOP nomination by 54 percent to 43 percent, Biden is in desperate trouble with Democrats. They want to nominate someone other than Biden by 62 percent to 33 percent.
I can’t remember any incumbent president running for reelection who had two-thirds of his party hoping someone else could be the nominee.
So, the House Republicans seem to be the only group in Washington trying to do what the American people want. As they wrestle, argue, and negotiate, we must remember what they are trying to do is incredibly hard. They have a narrow majority. Cutting spending is always challenging.
With a much larger majority, we were able to pass the only four balanced budgets in your lifetime when I was speaker. It was unbelievably difficult. Chairman Arrington has pointed the right direction, and Speaker Kevin McCarthy is steadily, patiently—and with great resilience—moving the House Republicans toward passing a Continuing Resolution with spending cuts.
As a sign of how out-of-touch the left-wing media is, even the Washington Post/ABC News poll indicates the Democrats would get blamed for a shutdown. This is what happened when we shut the government twice in 1995 and went on to become the first reelected House Republican majority since 1928 because people could tell we were serious about change.
According to the Post/ABC poll, “The issue of aid to Ukraine is just one of several issues that have split House Republicans, making the possibility of a government shutdown at the end of next week increasingly likely. But when asked whom they would blame if that were to happen, 40 percent say Biden and the Democrats while 33 percent say Republicans in Congress.”
Sadly, the Senate Republicans seem split. A small group wants to cut spending and represent the wishes of the American people. A slightly larger group wants to go along to get along and is comfortable with giant deficits and no reforms. Think of them as the Biden Republicans.
As the party of Abraham Lincoln, all Republicans should remember his warning that with public sentiment anything is possible, without public sentiment nothing is possible. Republicans should also remember that we stand for “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
The people have spoken. They want less spending.
House Republicans are moving in the right direction. Senate Republicans should realize that being a McCarthy Republican is going to be a lot more popular than being a Biden Republican.
