Public opinion on government size and budget – big and wasteful

Granted, the information comes from a poll with subjective questions, but Gallup released a couple of polls early this week concerning the perception of the waste at the federal government level and over-regulation of business. Perception is reality, and I argue their is now a consensus.

Stephen Moore at the Wall Street Journal discusses the $2 trillion bridge to nowhere.

If you want to know why Americans are so fearful of a government takeover of the health-care system, take a look at the results of a new Gallup poll on government waste released Sept. 15. One question posed was: “Of every tax dollar that goes to Washington, D.C., how many cents of each dollar would you say is wasted?” Gallup found that the mean response was 50 cents. With Uncle Sam spending just shy of $4 trillion this year, that means the public believes that $2 trillion is wasted.

In a separate poll released on Monday, Gallup found that nearly twice as many Americans believe that there is “too much government regulation of business and industry” as believe there is “too little” (45% to 24%).

Moore goes on to detail how there has been a distinct change in America’s opinion of its government recently and notes we just elected a president who is doing exactly what he said he was going to do when it comes to domestic policy – there should be no surprises so why the change in opinion?

Basically, it was the presentation style President Obama used during the campaign that got him elected, not the words he used.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has a more detailed analysis. Pundits are expecting another 1994 in 2010.