54% Say States Should Be Able To Opt Out of Federal Programs
Most voters continue to believe states should be able to ignore federal programs they don’t like, especially if the federal government doesn’t help pay for them.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters believe states should have the right to opt out of federal programs they don’t agree with. Thirty-one percent (31%) disagree and say states shouldn’t have the right to opt out while 15% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Support for states’ rights jumps higher when the question involves federally mandated programs with no checks attached. Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters think states should have the right to opt out of such programs if the federal government doesn’t help pay for them. Twenty-one percent (21%) disagree and 16% are undecided.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 23-24, 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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