The Treasury Department’s announcement last week that the federal budget deficit grew 17 percent to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, the highest level in six years, was pretty big news around these parts. But most registered voters surveyed in a new Morning Consult/Politico poll say they haven’t heard much about it. Only 17 percent of those voters say they’ve seen, read or heard “a lot” about the rising deficit, and another 29 percent say they’ve gotten “some” information on it. More than half of those polled say they have seen, read or heard little (26 percent) or nothing at all (28 percent) about the new deficit number.
The same poll found that 52 percent of registered voters say that reducing the federal deficit should be a “top priority” for Congress, with another 30 percent saying it’s an important but lower priority.
More than three-fourths of registered voters said passing a health care reform bill was a top priority (53 percent) or an important but lesser priority (24 percent).
Forty-two percent called “reforming entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare” a top priority, and another 26 percent said such reform was important but less of a priority.
The poll of 1,968 registered voters was conducted October 18-19. Its results have a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
