NEW POLL: Arizona Voters Say to Hold Off on New Spending

Oct 26, 2021 by AFP

Americans for Prosperity/YouGov poll finds majority of independents concerned about inflation, middle class tax hikes

PHOENIX, AZ – Americans for Prosperity – Arizona (AZ) today released findings of a poll conducted by YouGov October 7-18, 2021, that found a significant majority of Arizonans want Congress to hold off on passing new spending, amid concerns that the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package would cause additional inflation.

AFP-AZ State Director Stephen Shadegg released the following statement:

“The $3.5 trillion reconciliation package is full of giveaways to special interest while offering little benefit to average Americans. This new poll confirms that Arizona voters know the reckless spending will cause high inflation and tax increases. AFP-AZ is calling on Washington to hit pause on trillions more in taxpayer dollars.”

Topline Findings:

Plurality of Arizonans Favor Scrapping The Spending Bill Entirely. 47 percent of Arizonans favor scrapping the $3.5 trillion bill entirely over concerns about higher middle-class taxes, higher interest rates, and higher inflation. Only 37 percent support moving ahead.

Major Concerns Loom Over Higher Inflation and Increased Cost of Living. 57 percent believe that the spending bill will likely cause higher inflation (including 56 percent of Independents). A majority of respondents, 51 percent, say concerns about higher inflation are reason for Congress to hold off on any new spending. 64 percent of Independents say inflation is a “big” or “moderate” concern.

Despite Claims Majority Believe Middle Class Will See Higher Taxes. Despite claims by supporters that only the wealthy will pay for the package, a majority of respondents, 51 percent, believe that the spending plan would raise taxes on the middle class. Notably, 51 percent of Independents also believe the middle-class will pay higher taxes.

Plurality Believe Benefits Will Go To Special Interests, Not Their Family. A plurality of respondents do not believe they or their families will benefit from the spending plan, but that special interests are likely to benefit greatly.

40 percent of respondents believe that their families would not benefit from the spending package, compared to just 15 percent who say their families would benefit greatly. Another 28% said their family may benefit somewhat.
46 percent of Arizonans say that people like them would not benefit from the reconciliation package, while 19 percent say they would benefit greatly, and 24 percent say that would only benefit somewhat.
Among all the groups asked about, Arizonan thought special interests were most likely to greatly benefit from the proposed spending package. 38 percent of respondents said that special interests would benefit greatly from the spending plan, 26 percent say that special interests would benefit somewhat, and only 14 percent say special interests wouldn’t benefit at all.

Plurality Believe The Spending Plan Would Not Help The Poor Or Middle Class. 43 percent said the poor would not benefit from the plan, while only 22 percent said the plan would benefit the poor greatly. 39 percent said the plan wouldn’t help the middle class, while only 20 percent say the middle class would benefit greatly.

METHODOLOGY: YouGov interviewed 700 Arizona respondents from October 7th to October 18th to produce the final dataset. The respondents were matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, race, and education. The frame was constructed by stratified sampling from the full 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) 1-year sample with selection within strata by weighted sampling with replacements (using the person weights on the public use file). It was not solely among registered voters, although the vast majority of respondents were registered voters.