Surveys show Americans believe foreign aid is 25% of the federal budget. It’s less than 1%. The public is misinformed about what the US spends money on, which creates an abstract desire to “cut spending” that’s extremely difficult to translate into policy. https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/what-every-american-should-know-about-us-foreign-aid/
I do have to wonder about that poll, like, if you take the average of responses, then it'd be very difficult to get anywhere near 1% or 99%. Like if the correct number is 1% and you ask 100 people and 95 say 1% but the other 5% say like 90%, then the average would be 5.45%. A small number of people being really misinformed or trolling can have a really big effect if you're looking at extremes like that, and that could explain why the estimates are way higher when the answer is a low number and way lower when the answer is a high number. When the answers are between like 35% and 65%, the estimates are a lot more accurate.
I did all that analysis then scrolled down and saw that they also give the median responses and it's pretty much just as bad lmao. Maybe slightly better.
I do have to wonder about that poll, like, if you take the average of responses, then it'd be very difficult to get anywhere near 1% or 99%. Like if the correct number is 1% and you ask 100 people and 95 say 1% but the other 5% say like 90%, then the average would be 5.45%. A small number of people being really misinformed or trolling can have a really big effect if you're looking at extremes like that, and that could explain why the estimates are way higher when the answer is a low number and way lower when the answer is a high number. When the answers are between like 35% and 65%, the estimates are a lot more accurate.I did all that analysis then scrolled down and saw that they also give the median responses and it's pretty much just as bad lmao. Maybe slightly better.