Cut Them, Not Me

In a Gallup poll taken before the State of the Union speech, a majority of Americans favored cuts in only one area: foreign aid. "More than 6 in 10 opposed cuts to education, Social Security, and Medicare. Smaller majorities objected to cutting programs for the poor, national defense, homeland security, aid to farmers, and funding for the arts and sciences."

Unfortunately (for those polled), foreign aid is only about 1% of the US budget, or about $30B/yr. Americans vastly overestimate how much of the budget goes to foreign aid, with the median estimate at 25%.

Really, it's difficult to see much budget cutting ever taking place, once it's put into actual numbers.