62% Want Social Security Spending to Go Up — and Cuts to Almost Everything Else
Written by
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy
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Amid stalled debt ceiling and budget talks, as well as discussions about cuts to social programs, most Americans on the contrary believe that government spending on these programs should increase.
Indeed, 62% of Americans say the government is not spending enough on social security, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research study.
In addition, Americans say that other policy issues the government is spending too little on include education, with 65%; healthcare, with 63%; infrastructure, with 62%; assistance to the poor, with 59%; and Medicare with 58%.
Yet, asked generally about government spending, 60% of Americans also believe the U.S. government is spending too much, while 16% think it is spending too little and only 22% say it is spending the right amount, the study found.
So where should the cuts be according to the public?
Two-thirds of the public says the government is overspending on assistance to other countries or foreign aid. In addition, 41% say that too much is spent on assistance to big cities; 39% say on space exploration; 29% say on the military; and 20% say on scientific research.
President Joe Biden released his administration’s $6.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2024 on March 9, which includes a series of higher taxes on wealthy Americans and on corporations.
The budget -if enacted- would notably implement a Billionaire Minimum Tax of 25% on the wealthiest taxpayers – those with wealth greater than $100 million – which would help pay for social programs as well as help reduce the deficit by $3 trillion.
Meanwhile, Republicans have yet to release their budget. So far, as The Washington Post reported, Republicans have failed to coalesce around a final set of spending reductions, but have made a broad commitment to trim federal healthcare, science, education and labor programs.
On March 29, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) sent a letter to Biden, saying that “House Republicans are united in our view that the best way to reduce the national debt is to limit spending, save taxpayer money and grow the economy,” he wrote, “I am prepared to sit down to discuss a variety of means to do so that would achieve trillions of dollars in savings.”
In response, Biden told McCarthy he would meet once House Republicans to release a budget proposal, and called on them to do so before lawmakers leave for Easter recess at the end of the week, according to The Hill.
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