Where to cut?
A US survey (see Wonkblog coverage) asked respondents about cutting government spending both overall, and in 19 specific areas. Most people were in favour of overall cuts, but none of the 19 areas got a majority in favour of decreased funding (click to embiggen, as usual)
Even among self-identified Republicans, only two areas had majority support for cuts: unemployment benefits and foreign aid, which make up less than 3.5% of the federal budget.
The graph is pretty good, but some indication of the relative size of these areas (perhaps by the thickness of the bars) might improve it.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »