Poll: U.S. spends too much, but not on Social Security

WASHINGTON — Many U.S. adults believe the federal government is overspending — but polling also shows that many Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, think the country is spending too little on major government programs including Social Security.

The polls from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggest that as President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk push for extensive cuts throughout the federal government, slashing funding for humanitarian aid and turning their attention to the U.S. Department of Education and the military, Americans may not agree with where Trump and Musk's cuts should ultimately fall.

About two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. government is spending “too little” on Social Security and education, according to a January AP-NORC poll. Another 6 in 10, roughly, say too little money is going to assistance to the poor. A similar share say spending is too low for Medicare, the national health care insurance program for seniors, and most also say Medicaid is underfunded by the government.

About half say border security is not receiving enough funding.

The perpetual challenge for lawmakers is that although U.S. adults mostly think the government isn't spending enough on key issues and programs, they broadly favor cuts to the federal budget. AP-NORC polling from March 2023 found that 6 in 10 U.S. adults said the government was spending “too much” overall.

Most think too much goes to foreign aid

Foreign aid is one area where there is broad consensus that the federal government is overspending.

In the 2023 poll, roughly 7 in 10 U.S. adults said the government was putting too much money toward “assistance to other countries.” About 9 in 10 Republicans and just over half of Democrats agreed the country was overspending on foreign aid.

Richard Tunnell, a 33-year-old veteran living in Huntsville, Texas, said he believes the United States gets involved in other countries' problems too often. Tunnell, an independent who voted for Trump last November, is glad that Trump, a Republican, is prioritizing his “America First” policies.

“Americans need to worry about Americans," Tunnell said. "There’s atrocities happening on American soil just as much as there is on foreign soil. You know, if we can’t clean up our own house, why the hell are we trying to clean up somebody else’s house?"

At the same time, polling has shown that U.S. adults tend to overestimate the share of the federal budget that is spent on foreign aid. Surveys from KFF have found that, on average, Americans say spending on foreign aid makes up 31 percent of the federal budget rather than the actual answer: 1 percent or less.

Social Security and Medicare spending

On both sides of the political aisle, very few U.S. adults think the country is spending too much on Social Security and Medicare, according to the January poll.

But there are bigger divides on spending for the military, border security, Medicaid and assistance to the poor.

About one-third of U.S. adults overall say the federal government is spending “too much” on the military. About one-third say the military is getting “too little” funding, and another one-third say it takes in “about the right amount.” But most Republicans say the military is underfunded, while slightly less than half of Democrats say it's getting too much money.

Jeremy Shouse, a 38-year-old Democrat in Durham, N.C., said he believes government assistance programs for ordinary Americans should be as well-funded as the U.S. military is.

“I think it’s really a slap in our faces as Americans," he said, referring to the underfunding of programs like Medicaid, which he has needed to use.

“When it comes down to school, Medicaid, any type of government assistance programs, the money is just kind of not there," he said. "Not like it is for the military or the Army.”

Strong majorities of Democrats say the U.S. government spends “too little” on assistance to the poor, education, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They are divided on funding for border security — about 4 in 10 say the funding is about the right amount, while 3 in 10 say it's too high and about 3 in 10 say it's too little — and tend to say federal law enforcement agencies such as the CIA and the FBI are getting the right amount of funding.

Republicans tend to want more money for border security, Social Security and the military. About 8 in 10 Republicans say too little money is allocated to border security, and about two-thirds say that about Social Security.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,147 adults was conducted Jan. 9-13, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.