These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
Importance of Issues
Economy, Health Care Still Top Voters' List of Important Issues
Sunday, February 13, 2011
House Republicans are plotting aggressive spending cuts and planning to defund the national health care law in efforts to stimulate the anemic economy, the issue that remains at the forefront of voters' minds.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 83% see the economy as a Very Important issue in terms of how they vote. That's down slightly from results found in December , but the economy has earned top billing over the past several years among 10 issues regular surveyed on by Rasmussen Reports. (To see survey question wording, click here .)
The number of voters who sees the economy as being Very Important in terms of how they vote has not dipped below 80% since September 2008.
Voters continue to trust the GOP more than Democrats on all 10 issues that Rasmussen Reports regularly asks about, including the economy, health care, taxes and immigration.
Health care comes in second to the economy in terms of importance among voters, with 72% who regard it as Very Important. The number of voters who saw health care as being Very Important hovered in the high 50s to low 60s in the year prior to President Obama's inauguration, but interest began to rise as the debate over a national health care reform law heated up. Those who view health care as Very Important have ranged from 66% to 79% since the law's passage last March.
The majority of all voters still support repeal of the national health care law and remain convinced that it will drive up the cost and hurt the quality of health care in the country.
Two surveys of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide were conducted on February 6-9, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error for each survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology .
Both education and government ethics and corruption are viewed as Very Important by 65% of voters this month. Concern with education ties the highest result found in more than four years, first reached last September.
Voter concern with government ethics as dipped in recent months, after hovering in the high-70s to low 80s for much of 2009.
The issue of taxes is considered Very Important to 63% of Likely Voters, showing little fluctuation since early March 2009.
Social Security is right behind with 60% who regard the issue as Very Important, the lowest finding in a year. Still, voter concern with the issue has changed little for several years.
Voters give roughly the same amount of weight to immigration, an issue 59% see as Very Important. Focus on immigration jumped after passage of the Arizona immigration law last April, when 63% saw the issue as Very Important. Prior to that time, the number who saw immigration as being Very Important stayed mostly in the 40s and 50s.
Nearly half of U.S. voters think America would be a safer place with less spending on the military and more money put into securing the borders. Most voters continue to view securing the border as the country's top immigration priority.
Defense and security issues currently come in last in importance among voters. Fifty-four percent (54%) see national security and the war on terror as being Very Important, showing no change from December's finding.
Even fewer voters (43%) regard the War in Afghanistan as Very Important, a finding that has stayed in the low 40s for months. Only 35% feel that way about the War in Iraq.
There's little change in the number of U.S. voters who think the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror , but the number who feel the terrorists are winning has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years.
With Congress talking dramatic budget cuts, voters are fairly evenly divided as to whether the federal government spends too much or too little on national defense, but most also appear to dramatically underestimate how much is actually spent. Just 56% recognize that the United States spends about six times as much on national defense as any other nation in the world.