I've posted several times about the ideological dynamic in America -- briefly, while more people self-identify as "conservative," they're absolutely more liberal when they're polled issue-by-issue.
Apparently the same goes for government spending. Greg Sergent posts the results of the new Pew Poll:
The poll finds that in general, more Americans think deficit reduction is a more important priority (49 percent) than spending to help the economy recover (46 percent).
So Americans are opposed to government spending. But when they're asked about spending, issue-by-issue, they actually support government spending by wide margins. In chart form:
In other words, on most issues, Americans want spending to increase or stay the same. A significantly small minority want to cut spending issue-by-issue. And, of course, issue-by-issue is a more accurate and specific measure of opinion.
So can we cut the shit with all of the "cut spending" jibberjabber?