Visible Vote conducts periodic opinion polls of people who have signed up to use it, and a recent one asked respondents where they would reduce expenditures in order to reduce the federal budget. It was not an open-ended question, the possible choices were Health care, Social security, Defense, Education, or Other. The poll results are illustrated below:
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Um3kD4sSF4w/TTORzjHIZYI/AAAAAAAAG5c/9YVrPxs-X_0/s400/vv01.jpg)
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Um3kD4sSF4w/TTORv8Yp5lI/AAAAAAAAG5U/_c5j0l1HJyY/s400/vv02.jpg)
Of the three largest (and approximately equal) areas of federal expenditure i.e. Defense, Social Security, and Health care (i.e. Medicare plus Medicaid), most went for Health care, fewer for Defense, and a small number for Social Security. Clearly, many of the respondents don't have a very clear idea of where government spending actually goes, especially those "voting" for cuts in the 'Education' and 'Other' categories (which account for a very small portion of total outlays)... The pie chart below shows outlays for Fiscal Year 2011...
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Um3kD4sSF4w/TTORGsoER_I/AAAAAAAAG5M/7DmtfNLf4Uo/s400/budget01.jpg)
Just for interest sake, here is the pie chart of where the money is coming from...
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Um3kD4sSF4w/TTORC5vMTkI/AAAAAAAAG5E/cGwY6b3PXWo/s400/budget02.jpg)
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