Majority of Voters Believe Cutting Government Spending Helps the Economy

A Scott Rasmussen National Survey found that a majority of voters believe that cutting government spending helps the economy and that a near majority believe increasing government spending is bad for the economy.

In addition a majority of voters of all income levels say it is possible to cut government spending without harming essential government programs.

Key Findings:

51% believe cutting government spending helps the economy.

  • 25% believe it hurts the economy
  • 7% say it has no impact

29% say that increasing government spending is good for the economy.

  • 48% say it is bad for the economy.
  • There is a sharp age divide, with an equal number of under 45 year olds saying it is good and bad, but a large majority of over 45 year olds saying it is bad.

60% of voters say that increasing government spending leads to more inflation.

  • 16% say less inflation and 24% are not sure.
  • Pluralities of voters of all races believe increasing government spending leads to more inflation, including 54% of whites, 43% of blacks and 48% of Hispanics.

58% of voters say it is possible to cut government spending without harming essential government programs.

  • This includes a majority of all income groups, though higher income voters earning over $150,000 per year were much more likely to say so (73%) than overall.

This Counterpolling™ survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on June 9-11, 2022. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 2.8 percentage points. This survey was paid for by RMG Research, Inc. as part of the service provided for our Gold Circle Members.