Voters Favor Ban on Earmarks, But Not Strongly

Earmarks. Pork barrel spending. Call it what you will. Congress views the recent elections as a mandate to cut government spending, and first on the list is a ban on allowing legislators to steer money to their favorite home projects. But voters aren’t quite as gung-ho.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that nearly half (48%) of Likely U.S. Voters favor a ban that prohibits all members of Congress from steering taxpayer money to pet projects in their home districts.

Thirty-six percent (36%), however, oppose such a ban on the practice that allows legislators to pump millions of extra dollars into their home states. Fifteen percent (15%) more are not sure about it.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Only 10% of voters think taxpayer money is fairly apportioned among all the states. Seventy-five percent (75%) say some members of Congress make sure their states get more money than other states. Fourteen percent (14%) aren’t sure which is the case.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on November 17-18, 2010 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.

How does the proposed ban on earmarks play among Democratic and Republican voters? What’s the Political Class think of the idea? Become a Platinum member and find out.