Voters Support Massive Deficit Financed Investments In The Economy
The time to invest in infrastructure, education, and healthcare is now. The national debt should not stand in our way.
By Ethan Winter
In a January speech, President-elect Biden announced that it was time for deficit spending. Specifically, he said, “We should be investing in deficit spending in order to generate economic growth.” Biden added, “we’re going to have to invest in infrastructure and health care and a whole range of things that are going to generate good-paying jobs.”
This rhetoric echoed the findings of previous Data for Progress research. We found, for example, that likely voters become supportive of deficit spending when they’re told it will drive economic growth. As found in a Vox and Data for Progress poll, likely voters also recognize that the coronavirus pandemic and the economic turmoil it’s wrought mean that the federal government should add to the national debt to finance aggressive fiscal stimulus. What’s been consistent throughout our research is that when people are told that deficit spending can deliver them material benefits, anxiety about adding to the national debt melts away.
In an article in the Nation, Mike Konczal called upon the incoming Biden administration and Democratic Party more broadly to see the era of “massive spending, giant deficits, a high debt-to-GDP ratio” as both a necessity and historic opportunity. Konczal outlines policies in healthcare, infrastructure, and education where deficit funding should be used to build new institutions, offer new services, and expand the social safety net.
As part of a January 2021 survey, Data for Progress tested support for the deficit-financed agenda that Konczal outlines among likely voters nationally. We find high support for all the proposals tested — with that support extending across party lines.
Specifically, we asked likely voters about four proposals:
Provide universal pre-K education to every child in the United States
Massive investment in research and development (R&D) to create manufacturing jobs, particularly in clean energy
Create a child allowance that provides $3,000 per child – and $3,600 for young children under 6 years of age
Create a public option for health insurance
Likely voters were told that all of these proposals would be paid for by adding to the national debt.
Among all likely voters, universal pre-K is backed by a 46-percentage-point margin (68 percent support, 22 percent oppose). R&D for manufacturing and clean energy, meanwhile, enjoys a 49-point margin of support (69 percent support, 20 percent oppose). The creation of a public option that all Americans can buy-into — the markedly more ambitious of the two health care policies tested here — nets a 33-point margin of support (61 percent support, 28 percent oppose). A child allowance is supported by a 28-point margin (58 percent support, 30 percent oppose).
Support for these four proposals is also broad, regardless of partisan self-identification. All four of these proposals enjoy majority support among likely voters that self-identify as Democrats. Among likely voters that self-identify as Independent / Third Party, meanwhile, all proposals enjoy majority support, which still enjoys plurality support. Many of these deficit-financed proposals are even popular among likely voters that self-identify as Republicans — universal pre-k is supported by a 22-point margin, R&D by a 21-point margin, and a child allowance by a five-point margin. Republicans are evenly divided at 45 percent over the public option.
With a trifecta of power in the House, Senate, and presidency, Democrats have both an opportunity and obligation to go big. Chances to go big, legislatively speaking, are rare and they must be seized. While there has certainly been historical suspicion from the electorate regarding deficit spending, lawmakers should recognize how the coronavirus pandemic and growing desire among voters for increased social spending have scrambled old political faultlines and attitudes towards the national debt. Voters want not only deficit-financed relief but long-term investments that are paid for by adding to the national debt.
Ethan Winter (@EthanBWinter) is an analyst at Data for Progress. You can email him at ethan@dataforprogress.org.
Methodology
From January 9 to January 10, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,129 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±2.9 percentage points.
Question wording
Below you'll see a list of proposals For each, say whether you would support or oppose it. These will all be paid for by adding to the national debt.
Massive investment in research and development to create manufacturing jobs, particularly in clean energy, here in the U.S.
Provide universal pre-K education to all children in the U.S.
Create a child allowance that provides $3,000 per child – and $3,600 for young children under 6 years of age. The proposal would be available to all middle-class and low-income families.
Creating a public option for health insurance where a government-run health insurance option would compete with private plans and be available to all Americans for purchase
Strongly support
Somewhat support
Somewhat oppose
Strongly oppose
Don’t know