Despite what you may guess by mass media coverage, the priorities of Americans are not global warming or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but are instead just what they were in 1990; health care and a good education for their children.

That's not to say the NEA or the current health care reform efforts are favored by people, no one except other government employees(1) suggests that unionizing government employees has been a good thing and with 1,000 waivers already issued in reform that will never happen, it isn't really reform, but during a recession when the majority feel taxes are too high, they still recognize the importance of education even if they can't afford to spend more on it.

The results were part of the 27th survey of American spending priorities since 1973 conducted as part of the General Social Survey (GSS) by National Opinion Research Center(NORC).   The GSS is a biennial survey that gathers data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes.   The GSS is supported by the National Science Foundation and it is the second most-referenced survey in America, after the U.S. Census.

Education and health care were the two most important by a substantial margin, but rounding out the top ten spending priorities, even in a bad economy, were 

(3) assistance to the poor
(4) halting crime
(5) Social Security
(6) the environment
(7) dealing with drug addiction
(8) childcare
(9) drug rehabilitation
(10) law enforcement.

Finishing lowest in priority among the 22 categories, as it has in every survey since 1973, is foreign assistance. 

The results are pretty compassionate during a recession.   53% of Americans said their federal taxes were too high, while a somewhat clueless 2% said their taxes were too low, but overall Americans still back more spending in about three-quarters of the areas and less spending only in the bottom quarter. 

Still, the level of support for more spending declined from 2008 in most categories.  The net percentage of people who felt we spend too little on law enforcement fell from 44.8% in 2008 to 36.4% in 2010 and  the net percentage of those who feel we spend too little on the environment fell from 58.7% in 2008 to 48.5% in 2010. 

The survey employs a sample of 2,044 interviews. The order of spending priorities is determined by subtracting the percentage of respondents saying "too much" is being spent in a category from those saying that "too little" is being spent for that category. The resulting net percentage in each category determines their rank in the list of spending categories.

Tom W. Smith, the Director of the General Social Survey and Principal Investigator said, "Facing soaring deficits and disagreements over the mix of taxes and spending in the budget, it is valuable to consider what the American people think governmental spending priorities should be and how their preferences have changed over the last four decades."

Well, they haven't.   People cared about education and their health then as well, there are just limits to how much people can spend.

NOTE:

(1) And the French.