Most Voters Still Feel Tax Cuts, Less Spending Will Help Economy

Voters continue to believe tax cuts and decreases in government spending will benefit the nation’s economy.  But most also still think government spending will go up under the Obama administration. 

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters say, generally speaking, tax cuts help the economy.  Most voters have shared that sentiment in surveys for years. Only 21% believe tax cuts hurt the economy, while 13% say they have no impact.  Another 13% are not sure. (to see survey question wording, click here.)

A plurality (48%) of voters say decreases in government spending will help the economy.  Twenty-nine percent (29%) say cutting government spending will hurt the economy.  Ten percent (10%) believe such decreases will have no impact, while 13% are not sure. These findings, too, have remained fairly consistent over the years.

When it comes to the current administration, 55% of voters believe government spending will go up, but this marks the lowest finding of the Obama presidency. Prior to this survey, belief that spending will go up has run from 58% to 74% since Obama took office in January 2009. Fifteen percent (15%) now feel government spending will go down under this president, while 23% think it will stay about the same.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 27-28, 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.