Voters Don’t Want a Shutdown, They Want Action on the National Debt Instead
Congress faces a September 30 deadline to find agreement on a budget and avert a government shutdown. A vast majority of voters is urging them to come together to find a solution.
A new Peterson Foundation poll shows that nine-in-ten Americans want policymakers to work together to avoid a shutdown and focus on implementing solutions to our growing national debt. Strong majorities of voters across party lines believe a shutdown should be avoided because it harms the economy (77%) and because it distracts from America’s larger fiscal challenges (70%).
As Foundation CEO Michael Peterson said, “Nobody wins in a government shutdown, especially our economy and the American people.”
See the below infographic for further details on this new polling.
Further Reading
How Much Do We Spend on the Federal Workforce?
Here, we examine the federal government’s expenditure on its workforce, the evolution of its size over time, and the opportunities for budget savings.
10 Largest Budget Functions
Here are the top ten spending categories for the federal budget.
Debt vs. Deficits: What’s the Difference?
The words debt and deficit come up frequently in debates about policy decisions. The two concepts are similar, but are often confused.