According to a nationwide poll taken a week or so after the election that was released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
While 75% identify the Republicans as the party regarded as doing best in the midterms, fewer than half (46%) know that Republicans will have a majority only in the House when the new Congress convenes in January. About one-in-seven (14%) say the GOP won both the House and Senate; 8% say they won just the Senate; 5% do not think they will have a majority in either chamber; and 27% do not know.
And if you ever wondered why the budget as a political issue is more about connecting emotionally than rationally, and why moving the needle on public opinion is so hard…
Overall, 39% of the public knows that the government spends more on national defense than on education, Medicare or interest on the national debt. About one-in-four (23%) say the government spends more on interest payments and 15% say Medicare is the largest expenditure of these four alternatives. Government accounting estimates indicate that the government spends about twice as much on defense as on Medicare, and more than four times as much on defense as on interest on the debt.
The poll has lots of interesting cross-tab findings that are worth a few minutes of your time.
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