Medicare cuts, as well as spending curtailments for other entitlement programs such as Medicaid and Social Security, are unpopular across voters of the entire political spectrum, a Bloomberg poll has found.
More than four in five (82 percent) of all Americans surveyed in the poll said that they opposed cuts to Medicare, while a smaller majority (72 percent) said the same about Medicaid cuts.
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed they would keep the current Social Security system as-is.
The poll, which surveyed 1,000 American adults with a 3.1 percentage point margin of error, was conducted Dec. 4 to Dec. 7 amid an Obama deficit commission’s recommendations to cut Medicare, Social Security, and defense spending as well as other federal programs.
The bipartisan group was tasked by President Obama to propose a plan to reduce the deficit, which has reached nearly $14 trillion with a yearly shortfall of $1.3 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September.
However, despite Americans’ reluctance to call for spending cuts to entitlements like Medicare, two out of every three respondents said that recipients should be means tested for Social Security or Medicare.
Earlier this week, Senate leaders came to an agreement on staving off a 23-percent cut to doctors’ Medicare payments.
More than four in five (82 percent) of all Americans surveyed in the poll said that they opposed cuts to Medicare, while a smaller majority (72 percent) said the same about Medicaid cuts.
Fifty-five percent of those surveyed they would keep the current Social Security system as-is.
The poll, which surveyed 1,000 American adults with a 3.1 percentage point margin of error, was conducted Dec. 4 to Dec. 7 amid an Obama deficit commission’s recommendations to cut Medicare, Social Security, and defense spending as well as other federal programs.
The bipartisan group was tasked by President Obama to propose a plan to reduce the deficit, which has reached nearly $14 trillion with a yearly shortfall of $1.3 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September.
However, despite Americans’ reluctance to call for spending cuts to entitlements like Medicare, two out of every three respondents said that recipients should be means tested for Social Security or Medicare.
Earlier this week, Senate leaders came to an agreement on staving off a 23-percent cut to doctors’ Medicare payments.
