Harris Interactive Poll: 80% of Swing State Voters Want Action on Sequestration before Elections
September 10, 2012
456,978 jobs in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri at stake, including 206,841 at small businesses
Arlington, Va. – As the nominating conventions conclude and the presidential campaign of 2012 kicks off in earnest, Congress returns to Washington with a full plate in a very short legislative calendar. Four out of five likely voters in critical battleground states want our leaders in Washington, DC to find an alternative to “sequestration” budget cuts before the November elections take place, according to a Harris Interactive online poll conducted on behalf of the Aerospace Industries Association.
“We've always known that sequestration is bad policy. Now we know it’s bad politics as well,” said AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey. “This survey shows that opposition to these reckless cuts runs from north to south, from old to young, and from left to right — 80 percent opposition means the call to put an end to sequestration is bipartisan without doubt. And swing state voters now stand alongside a swelling chorus of Americans, from military planners to small business owners to Congress' own budget analysts, all saying the same thing: we need action on sequestration, and we need it now.”
AIA commissioned the poll as part of the Second to None campaign, an advocacy initiative to bring awareness of the risks to our economy, national security and technological competitiveness from ill-considered cuts to aerospace and defense budgets. More than 2.14 million jobs are at stake from more than $100 billion in spending cuts in 2013 across defense and non-defense discretionary agencies. Included in that figure are 456,978 jobs in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri, where the survey was conducted. 206,841 of the jobs lost will come from small businesses in those states.
“This survey reveals that the American voting public is waking up to the danger of sequestration to our economic and national security,” said International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers International President R. Thomas Buffenbarger. “Now is the time for politicians to put aside the Beltway politics that have failed America and come up with a balanced solution that protects our ability to respond to a national security threat. This crisis demands immediate action. We must not wait until after the November elections.”
Small businesses form the backbone of job creation and innovation in America. The blind, across-the-board cuts called for under the Budget Control Act of 2011 will be devastating to those businesses and their communities across these states and throughout the country—putting at risk the very job creation and innovation we need and hamstringing an already slow economic recovery.
The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive from August 9-15, surveyed 4,042 U.S likely voters age 18 years or older across five states likely to determine control of the White House and United States Senate next year. The poll found that concern over sequestration cuts across age, party, race and regional lines. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of likely voters in these states said they were aware of this issue prior to taking the poll, a remarkable degree of penetration for such a topic.
