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POLITICS

60% Expect Government Spending To Go Up Under Obama

Although President Obama has outlined a jobs plan that couple tax breaks with spending cuts, most voters continue to believe government spending will go up under his administration.  They’re also not convinced taxes will go down on his watch. 

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of Likely U.S. Voters think spending will increase under the current administration.  Just 10% feel spending under Obama will go down, while 22% say it will stay the same.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The number of voters who feel government spending under the current president will increase is up six points from last month when 54% felt that way.  That finding matched the lowest level ever measured on this question.  Since November 2008, voter belief that spending will rise has ranged from 54% to 74%.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of voters now expect their taxes to go up under the Obama administration, while just eight percent (8%) expect them to go down. Forty-one percent (41%) predict that taxes will remain about the same.  Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

The number of voters who think their taxes will go up steadily increased following the presidential election in 2008, peaking at 48% in November 2009.  That finding has trended downward since then, remaining in the high 30s for several months now.

It's important to note, however, that the survey was taken prior to the president's jobs speech Thursday night, although elements of his plan have been public for nearly a month now.

(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 national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 6-7, 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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