What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending February 11, 2011

Let the budget battle begin.

House Republicans, feeling empowered by an angry electorate, are looking to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget and are now discussing plans to defund the national health care law since repeal has run aground in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

After all, the majority of voters still support repeal of the law and remain convinced that it will drive up the cost and hurt the quality of health care in the country. 

As they have from the beginning of the health care debate, voters see cost reduction as more important than ensuring universal coverage. Sixty-two percent (62%) believe reducing the cost of health care is more important than making sure that everyone has health insurance. Just 29% think universal health insurance coverage is more important.

But other than recognizing that budgets at all levels of government have grown too big, some Americans have a lot to learn about where their tax dollars go.

In 1954, the average new house cost just over $10,000, a new car was under $2,000, and gasoline was under 30 cents a gallon. It was also the last year that overall government spending in America declined from one year to the next. But only 60% of Americans believe that to be true. Scott Rasmussen puts that in greater perspective in a new video. 

Just 56% of voters recognize that the United States spends about six times as much on national defense as any other nation in the world.