Survey: US Voters Favor Cutting Carrier, F-35, Overall Defense Spending

Survey: US Voters Favor Cutting Carrier, F-35, Overall Defense Spending

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/budget/2016/03/09/survey-us-voters-favor-cutting-carrier-f-35-overall-defense-spending/81499100/?platform=hootsuite

WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans favor cutting the US defense budget in five out of seven key areas, including nuclear weapons and missile defense, according to a new University of Maryland survey released March 9.
Nationally, a majority supports modest budget cuts to air power ($2 billion), ground forces ($4 billion), naval forces ($2 billion), nuclear weapons ($3 billion) and missile defense ($1 billion). No majority emerged for either cutting or increasing the budgets of the Marine Corps or Special Ops forces.
In total, a majority of respondents would cut the defense budget by $12 billion. When broken down by party, a majority of Republican respondents would leave the defense budget as is, while the majority of Democrats would cut it by $36 billion (including $11 billion cuts to both air power and ground forces), a larger cut than the $20 billion cut supported by a majority of Independents.
The survey, which was in the field from Dec. 20 to Feb. 1 and used 2015 figures, polled 7,126 voters across the US, with smaller samples taken in California, Florida, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. The margin of error for the larger national group was plus or minus 1.4 percent, while for the state subsets, it ranged from 3.9 percent to 5.0 percent. (You can take the survey here.) http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/budget/2016/03/09/survey-us-voters-favor-cutting-carrier-f-35-overall-defense-spending/81499100/?platform=hootsuite