US 'Average' Citizen Polled About Defense Spending

Americans Surveyed on Defense Spending:


A study conducted by the Program for Public Consultation found that if given a choice, the average American would cut defense spending by 23 percent in Fiscal 2013 to help reduce the federal budget deficit. That would result in a defense budget some $127 billion below Fiscal 2012 levels, according to the study, issued May 10. The Stimson Center and the Center for Public Integrity collaborated on the study. PPC questioned a random sample of 665 American adults via the Internet from April 12 to April 18. Republican respondents, on average, proposed cutting defense spending by 15 percent, or $83 billion. Democrats, on the other hand, proposed a 28-percent cut, or $155 billion. The majority of respondents chose to cut nuclear weapons, with an overall average cut of $5.1 billion, or 27 percent, in this area, making it the largest proposed cut percentage-wise in the survey. Special operations forces faired the best among the categories, although six in 10 respondents chose to decrease SOF funding, but only by 10 percent."These views are likely to drive policymakers after the [Presidential] election," said Matthew Leatherman, a Stimson analyst during a May 10 briefing in Washington, D.C., unveiling the study results.
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The Heritage Foundation (Yes they are conservative) asked the average citizen what percentage of the federal budget is spent on defense. The average answer was 40 to 50% which would mean $1.8 to $2.0 TRILLION dollars.

No the question was not what I would spend on defense

Your "average" citizen is an idiot when it comes to defense. They get their "knowledge" from the MSM and Hollywood.

Defense spending is one of those things that is always an easy target...especially in tough financial times. It is also very dependent on how the question is asked.


Now if you also then ask the average citizen if the govt should be doing things to create and keep jobs, then I am sure they would be definitely in favour of it...which in effect can be viewed as the same thing...

sferrin said:

Your "average" citizen is an idiot when it comes to defense. They get their "knowledge" from the MSM and Hollywood.

Click to expand...

Agreed, the average citizen has literally no idea how much goes to defense much less any of the national budget. Now if every defense cut dollar went to NASA......

New poll by Aerospace Industries Association

A solid majority of Americans think the US should spend more on defense and feel they’re under greater threat, according to a Harris Poll commissioned by the Aerospace Industries Association, released Wednesday. AIA President Marion Blakey, speaking at the association’s year-end review in Washington, D.C., quoted the poll as saying that 69 percent of registered voters favor an increase in defense spending; broken down by party affiliation, it was 83 percent of Republicans, 63 percent of Independents, and 60 percent of Democrats. The numbers were similar when respondents were asked if they would support a candidate who favored increased defense spending. “I warn members of Congress” and candidates for 2016 “to ignore (this sentiment)… at your own peril,” Blakey said. She said it’s time to put aside “the rose-colored glasses of isolationists” and the “green eyeshades of fiscal ideologues” and devote adequate spending to defense. “The American people are genuinely concerned” that the risk posed by ISIS has made them significantly less secure than they were a year ago, Blakey said of other survey findings. The “modernization holiday,” which slowed the recapitalization of the US military during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, “simply must end,” she asserted. The best way to address public sentiment and restore voter confidence in Congress—at historically low levels—is to rescind the looming budget sequester, “listen” to the public mood, and “end this dangerous procrastination,” Blakey said.

Why are people surprised at the ignorance of the average American citizen? Considering 40% of Americans believe in a geocentric solar system/universe and 30% don't accept Evolution, it can't be such a surprise that they have little grasp of the realities about defence spending.

sublight said:

sferrin said:

Your "average" citizen is an idiot when it comes to defense. They get their "knowledge" from the MSM and Hollywood.

Click to expand...

Agreed, the average citizen has literally no idea how much goes to defense much less any of the national budget. Now if every defense cut dollar went to NASA......

Click to expand...

Ain't that the truth. I know it's a popular trope but it happens to be true, US citizens consistently report believing that NASA and DoD get similar funding. Imagine what NASA might be doing today with FY1968 levels of funding as a percentage of the federal budget.

I remember someone doing a half (ok, maybe 1/3) serious engineering review of what it would take to build the starship enterprise and it came to some number of trillions of dollars. Maybe we'd be there?

I'd settle for a serious effort for low cost launch platforms. Even a cheeky couple billion for reaction engines. Actually, that could end up coming out of military budgets anyway.