Popular federal programs

The level of support for most major federal government programs, which rose significantly between 2005 and 2008, has seen a little slippage since 2009, according to a new poll by Harris Interactive.

Medicare, crime-fighting and prevention and Social Security are the most popular of 13 programs covered in the survey, followed by national defense, the national parks, unemployment benefits and federal aid to public schools. The programs that receive the least public support are foreign aid and immigration and naturalization.

Harris conducted an online survey of 2,276 U.S. adults between Dec. 7-14.

“It is interesting that while government, and ‘Washington,’ are generally unpopular, 12 of the 13 major federal government services are supported by more than half of all adults, ten are supported by more than 70%, and seven are supported by more than 80%,” Harris noted in a statement. “A possible hypothesis would explain the trends in these numbers since 2005 – that support for government programs increases as the economy goes south, and is starting to fall now as the economy starts to recover.”

SURVEY FINDINGS
• A 57% majority of adults support the Medicare program “a great deal,” and a further 33% support it “somewhat,” making a total of 90% who support it.

• Other very popular services include crime-fighting and prevention (88% support, 47% “a great deal”), Social Security (86% support and 53% “a great deal”); defense (83% and 47% “a great deal”); the national parks (83% support and 41% “a great deal”); unemployment benefits (82% support and 39% “a great deal”) and federal aid to public schools (81% support and 43% “A great deal”).

• Other programs widely supported by large majorities, but where those support them “a great deal” are lower are Medicaid (79% support and 38% “a great deal”); intelligence services (79% support and 33% “a great deal”) and environmental protection (74% support and 34% “a great deal”).

• Two other programs supported by smaller majorities, where fewer people support them “a great deal” are food stamps (64% support and 21% “a great deal”), and immigration and naturalization (55% support and 19% “a great deal”).

• The one program supported by less than 50% is foreign aid (37% support and 6% “a great deal”).

• There has been a modest slippage overall in support for these federal government services over 12 months: the average level of support (“a great deal” and “somewhat”) has fallen from 78% to 76%. However, this is still much higher than it was (67%) in 2005.

• While the level of support for most programs has not fallen significantly, support for three programs has fallen by five or more percentage points: Immigration and naturalization (from 64% to 55%); Environmental protection (from, 81% to 74%); and National parks (from 88% to 83%).

• Surprisingly perhaps, the proportions of Republicans and Democrats who support most of those programs are not very different, although the Democrat numbers are stronger on all programs except defense and intelligence. Majorities of Republicans support all except two services, food stamps (48%) and foreign aid (29%).