New Poll: Voters Skeptical of Federal Spending Plans

Most New Hampshire voters believe the federal government is doing a poor job of keeping the public informed on how stimulus dollars are being spent, a new poll conducted by the American Research Group (ARG) for the government watchdog group STEWARD of Prosperity finds. Fifty-seven percent of respondents say the government is doing either a “bad” or “very bad” job in this regard.

The response is just one example of Granite State voters’ generally skeptical public mood expressed in the survey.

Half of all voters in the survey believe Congress did not act in the state’s best interest when they voted for the nearly-one trillion dollar spending package and a majority doesn’t believe the stimulus bill was necessary to recover the economy; sixty-percent said the economy “is in a downturn that will correct itself.”

Indicating a generally anti-Washington mood, 72% of voters should not be allowed to earmark money for special pork barrel spending projects. Seventy-nine percent oppose additional government loans to the auto industry and seventy-eight percent oppose additional government loans to the banking industry.

Nevertheless, the stimulus law remains well-branded. 54% of respondents favor it. And 61% believe “most” or “some” of the recent mildly positive economic news can be attributed to the stimulus.

However, when asked if they “favor or oppose increasing the federal budget deficit for the spending in this bill,” 57% of voters said they were opposed.

The poll was conducted between May 15 and May 17. According to ARG, “a total of 551 interviews were conducted among registered voters (169 registered Democrats, 148 registered Republicans, and 234 voters registered as undeclared (independents).”