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50% Oppose Obama Budget, 54% Say It Doesn’t Cut Enough

Senate Republicans are calling for side-by-side votes on President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal and the House-approved debt reduction plan by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan. While opposition to Ryan’s proposal is increasing, even more voters are saying no to the president’s.

A new Rasmussen Reports national survey of Likely Voters finds that just 30% favor Obama’s budget proposal based on what they’ve seen, heard or read. Fifty-percent (50%) oppose the president’s plan. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

By comparison, slightly fewer voters (26%) favor Ryan’s proposal, but fewer (34%) also oppose it. A sizable 40% still don’t know enough about the plan to have any opinion of it.

Generally speaking, 54% of voters believe Obama’s budget plan does not cut spending enough, a figure that is virtually unchanged from February. Only nine percent (9%) believe the president’s plan cuts spending too much, while 23% say the proposal has about the right amount of spending cuts. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.

When asked about the details, 38% of voters believe the president’s deficit reduction proposal relies mostly on tax hikes. Just 14% believe the proposal emphasizes mostly spending cuts. Thirty-two percent (32%) say the proposal suggests a fairly even balance of spending cuts and tax hikes. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

These perceptions suggest why most voters aren't sold on the president's proposal. After all, only 11% like a plan that relies mostly on tax hikes. A plurality (47%) prefers to see a proposal for deficit reduction that relies mostly on spending cuts, while 39% would rather see a fairly even balance of spending cuts and tax hikes.

(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 May 1-2, 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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