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POLITICS

Voters Favor Pay Cuts for Congress, President Until Budget Is Balanced

An overwhelming majority of voters nationwide want members of Congress to take a pay cut until the federal budget is balanced, and a plurality also thinks the president should chop his salary in half until that time.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that 82% believe members of Congress should take a 25% pay cut until the federal budget is balanced. Only 14% disagree. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

In August of last year, 75% of Likely Voters said more generally that Congress should cut its own pay until the federal budget is balanced. 

Nearly half of voters (48%) also believe the president should take a 50% pay cut until the federal budget is balanced. But 41% don’t share that view, while 11% more are undecided.

The day when a balanced budget comes is a long way off, according to most voters. Just 30% think it is at least somewhat likely that the federal budget will be balanced for even a single year during their lifetimes. That includes only nine percent (9%) who say it’s Very Likely. 

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 28-29, 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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