If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

LIFESTYLE

67% Think Too Many Americans Dependent On Government

Americans continue to believe too many of their fellow citizens are dependent on the federal government for financial help, although few say they personally rely on the government.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of American Adults think there are too many in this country who are dependent on the government for financial aid, up slightly from 64% in September of last year.  Eleven percent (11%) says not enough Americans are dependent on this aid. Another 11% feel the level of dependency is about right, down from 16% a year ago.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on September 5-6, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

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