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POLITICS

53% Favor Health Care Repeal, Think Law Will Increase Deficit

Most voters still favor repeal of the national health care law and believe it will drive up the federal deficit even as President Obama and Congress are stepping up the debate on how to cut the government’s massive debt.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters at least somewhat favor repeal of the law passed by Congress in March of last year. Forty percent (40%) are at least somewhat opposed. The new findings include 42% who Strongly Favor repeal and 31% who Strongly Oppose it. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Overall support for repeal is little changed from last week and has ranged from a low of 50% to a high of 63% in surveys since late March 2010.

Fifty-three percent (53%) of all voters think the health care law will increase the federal deficit. Just 18% say its implementation will decrease the deficit as the law’s supporters claimed during the congressional debate. Seventeen percent (17%) say the law will have no impact on the deficit, while 12% are not sure.

Since passage of the bill, the number of voters expecting the law to increase the deficit has ranged from 51% to 63%.

Most voters feel the president and Republicans in Congress are unlikely to agree on major spending cuts before next year’s elections. They also aren't confident either side will come up with a serious spending cut plan to begin with. Just 30% think it is at least somewhat likely that the federal budget will be balanced for even a single year during their lifetimes.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 23-24, 2011 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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