29% Favor Automatic Spending Cuts If Congress Doesn’t Reduce Spending By $1.5 Trillion

Although voters are skeptical that federal spending will actually be cut following the debt ceiling debate, a majority opposes automatic spending cuts if Congress doesn’t reach its reduction goals. A so-called Super Committee has been tasked with finding cuts of $1.5 trillion over a decade and recommending those cuts to the full Congress. If no cuts are agreed upon, automatic cuts are supposed to go into effect.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that 29% favor automatic spending cuts, including cuts from defense spending and Medicare, if Congress doesn’t reduce spending by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Fifty-two percent (52%) oppose these automatic spending cuts. Another 19% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Most voters nationwide disapprove of the debt ceiling agreement reached by the president and Congress earlier this week. Most voters also say it’s unlikely the deal will lead to significant reductions in spending and 40% recognize that spending will still increase over the next few years.

Republicans (35%) and voters not affiliated with either major political party (32%) are more in favor of automatic spending cuts than Democrats (20%) are.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 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.