As Oklahoma recovers from severe damage caused by last week's tornado, a majority of Americans (59%) say federal spending in response to natural disasters is emergency aid that does not need to be offset by cuts to other programs, while 29% say such spending must be offset by cuts to other programs.While there are partisan differences in opinions about how disaster aid should be treated, majorities of Democrats (69%), independents (57%) and Republicans (52%) say that federal spending in response to natural disasters does not require offsetting spending cuts elsewhere.The national survey by the Pew Research Center and the Washington Post, conducted May 23-26 among 1,005 adults, finds broad support across demographic groups for the view that federal spending in response to natural disasters is emergency aid and does not need to be offset by cuts to other programs. Comparable majorities of those living in the Northeast (62%), Midwest (58%), West (58%) and South (57%) all agree that federal spending in response to disasters is emergency aid

Alec Tyson

Carroll Doherty

Michael Dimock

English

IssueLab

     MAY 29, 2013     High Interest in Oklahoma Tornado  Most Say Disaster Spending Does Not Require Offsetting Cuts   A Pew Research Center/Washington Post Survey              FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT THE PEW RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE PEOPLE & THE PRESS Michael Dimock Director Carroll Doherty Associate Director Alec Tyson Research Associate  1615 L St, N.W., Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20036 Tel (202) 419-4372 Fax (202) 419-4399 www.people-press.org   www.people-press.org  High Interest in Oklahoma Tornado Most Say Disaster Spending Does Not Require Offsetting Cuts   As Oklahoma recovers from severe damage caused by last week’s tornado, a majority of Americans (59%) say federal spending in response to natural disasters is emergency aid that does not need to be offset by cuts to other programs, while 29% say such spending must be offset by cuts to other programs.  While there are partisan differences in opinions about how disaster aid should be treated, majorities of Democrats (69%), independents (57%) and Republicans (52%) say that federal spending in response to natural disasters does not require offsetting spending cuts elsewhere.  The national survey by the Pew Research Center and the Washington Post, conducted May 23-26 among 1,005 adults, finds broad support across demographic groups for the view that federal spending in response to natural disasters is emergency aid and does not need to be offset by cuts to other programs. Comparable majorities of those living in the Northeast (62%), Midwest (58%), West (58%) and South (57%) all agree that federal spending in response to disasters is emergency aid.  Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, those who agree with the Tea Party are divided: 49% say government disaster spending does not require offsetting cuts, 42% say that it does. By a 54%-30% margin, Republicans who do not agree with the Partisan Agreement that Disaster Spending Doesn’t Require Offsets Federal spending on natural disasters …  Must be offset by cuts Is emergency aid, needs no offsets DK % % % Total 29 59 13=100     Men 31 56 13=100 Women 26 60 13=100     18-29 42 48 11=100 30-49 30 57 14=100 50-64 24 65 11=100 65+ 20 64 15=100     Northeast 29 62 8=100 Midwest 24 58 17=100 South 31 57 12=100 West 28 58 14=100     Republican 36 52 12=100 Democrat 23 69 8=100 Independent 29 57 14=100     Among Reps, Rep-leaning Inds     Agree w/Tea Party 42 49 10=100 Disagree/ No opinion 30 54 15=100     Following Oklahoma news    Very closely 26 65 9=100 Less closely 31 53 16=100 PEW RESEARCH CENTER/WASHINGTON POST May 23-26, 2013. Figures may not add to 100% because of rounding. 2  www.people-press.org  Tea Party, or have no opinion of the movement, say emergency disaster spending does not require offsetting cuts.  Young people under the age of 30 are about as likely to say emergency disaster spending requires offsetting cuts (42%) as not (48%). Broad majorities of all other age groups say federal spending in response to natural disasters is emergency aid that does not require cuts to other programs.   High Interest in Oklahoma Tornado  Nearly half of Americans (47%) say they paid very close attention to news about the deadly tornado that stuck Moore, Oklahoma, last week. Interest in the tornado was only slightly lower than interest in Hurricane Sandy last fall (53%).  Interest in the storm far surpassed interest in the week’s other top stories, including the murder of a British soldier in London (18% very closely), the debate over immigration policy in the U.S. (17%) and news about the Obama administration’s policy on the use of military drones (17%).    Interest in Oklahoma Tornado  and Other Recent Disasters Percent following very closely % May 2013: Deadly tornado in Oklahoma 47   Oct. 2005: Hurricane Katrina and Rita  73 Jan. 2010: Major earthquake in Haiti 60 Jan. 2005: Tsunami in Indian Ocean 58 Mar. 2011: Japan earthquake and tsunami 55 Nov. 2012: Impact of Hurricane Sandy 53 Sept. 2008: Hurricane Ike 50 Aug. 2011: Hurricane Irene 45 May 2011: Deadly tornadoes in the Midwest 45 May 2011: Deadly storms in the South 45 PEW RESEARCH CENTER May 23-26, 2013. 3  www.people-press.org  About the Survey  The analysis in this report is based on telephone interviews conducted May 23-26, 2013 among a national sample of 1,005 adults 18 years of age or older living in the continental United States (501 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 504 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 253 who had no landline telephone). The survey was conducted by interviewers at Princeton Data Source under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. A combination of landline and cell phone random digit dial samples were used; both samples were provided by Survey Sampling International. Interviews were conducted in English. Respondents in the landline sample were selected by randomly asking for the youngest adult male or female who is now at home. Interviews in the cell sample were conducted with the person who answered the phone, if that person was an adult 18 years of age or older. For detailed information about our survey methodology, see:  http://people-press.org/methodology/.  The combined landline and cell phone sample are weighted using an iterative technique that matches gender, age, education, race, Hispanic origin and region to parameters from the 2011 Census Bureau's American Community Survey and population density to parameters from the Decennial Census. The sample also is weighted to match current patterns of telephone status, based on extrapolations from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey. The weighting procedure also accounts for the fact that respondents with both landline and cell phones have a greater probability of being included in the combined sample and adjusts for household size among respondents with a landline phone. Sampling errors and statistical tests of significance take into account the effect of weighting. The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey:  Group Unweighted sample size Plus or minus … Total sample 1,005 3.7 percentage points    Republicans 247 7.5 percentage points Democrats 310 6.7 percentage points Independents 334 6.4 percentage points  Sample sizes and sampling errors for other subgroups are available upon request.  In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.       © Pew Research Center, 2013   4  www.people-press.org   PEW RESEARCH CENTER May 23-26, 2013, OMNIBUS FINAL TOPLINE N=1,005  ASK ALL: PEW.1  As I read a list of some stories covered by news organizations this past week, please tell me if you happened to follow each news story very closely, fairly closely, not too closely, or not at all closely. First, [INSERT ITEM; RANDOMIZE] [IF NECESSARY “Did you follow [ITEM] very closely, fairly closely, not too closely or not at all closely?”]    Very closely Fairly closely Not too closely Not at all closely (VOL.) DK/Ref a.  A deadly tornado in Oklahoma      May 23-26, 2013 47 32 13 7 1 TRENDS FOR COMPARISON:      July 5-8, 2012: Strong storms in the Midwest and East and continued power outages 27 32 20 20 1 March 1-4, 2012: Deadly storms and tornadoes in the Midwest 33 31 17 18 1 May 26-29, 2011: Deadly tornadoes in the Midwest 45 33 13 9 * May 5-8, 2011: Tornadoes and flooding in the South and Midwest 41 37 15 7 * April 28-May 1, 2011: Deadly storms in the South 45 29 14 12 1 April 21-25, 2011: Deadly storms in the South and Midwest 29 33 18 20 * June 13-16, 2008: A tornado that killed four Boy Scouts at a camp in Iowa 32 35 17 16 * May 30-June 2, 2008: Violent storms and tornadoes in the Midwest 30 33 21 15 1 February 8-11, 2008: Violent storms and tornadoes in the South and Midwest 25 42 19 13 1 May 11-14, 2007: Tornadoes and floods in the Midwest 22 35 23 19 1 March 2-5, 2007: Violent storms and tornadoes in the South and Midwest 33 38 18 11 * May, 1999: Tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas 38 40 15 6 1       b. Debate over immigration policy in the U.S.      May 23-26, 2013 17 23 23 37 1 May 9-12, 2013 20 24 25 30 1 April 25-28, 2013 19 25 24 32 * April 18-21, 2013 21 22 25 31 1 April 4-7, 2013 23 22 22 32 * TRENDS FOR COMPARISON:      January 31-February 3, 2013: Debate in Washington over immigration policy 23 25 22 29 1 June 28-July 1, 2012: The Supreme Court decision on Arizona’s immigration law 29 21 19 30 1 April 26-29, 2012: The issue of immigration 21 24 26 27 1 May 12-15, 2011 18 22 27 32 1 September 2-6, 2010 30 31 19 20 1 August 12-15, 2010 27 31 19 21 1 July 29-August 1, 2010: A court ruling that stops most of Arizona’s immigration law from going into effect 40 32 17 10 1   5  www.people-press.org   PEW.1 CONTINUED…   Very closely Fairly closely Not too closely Not at all closely (VOL.) DK/Ref July 8-11, 2010: The U.S. Justice Department challenging the legality of Arizona’s recent immigration law 30 27 19 23 1 July 1-5, 2010: The issue of immigration 34 30 20 14 1 May 7-10, 2010: A new Arizona law that gives police more authority to question people they suspect might be illegal immigrants 38 27 13 21 1 April 30-May 3, 2010 36 31 13 20 * October 12-15, 2007: The issue of immigration 23 29 19 29 * June 29-July 2, 2007: The debate in Congress over new immigration policy 26 30 21 23 * June 22-25, 2007 24 28 22 26 * June 15-18, 2007 22 32 21 25 * June 8-11 , 2007 24 29 20 26 1 May 24-27, 2007 27 31 22 19 1 April 12-16, 2007: The issue of immigration 21 29 24 26 * August, 2006 34 40 16 9 1 June, 2006 36 41 15 7 1 May, 2006 44 33 13 9 1 April, 2006 39 34 16 10 1 December, 1994: Passage of Proposition 187, the California law that bars education, health and welfare benefits from illegal immigrants and their children 26 32 22 20 *       c. The murder of a British soldier in London, in a suspected terrorist attack      May 23-26, 2013 18 24 21 35 2 December 5-8, 2008: The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India  29 37 20 14 * July 6-9, 2007: The investigation into who was responsible for car bombs that were discovered in London and a car bomb that went off at an airport in Scotland 34 30 19 16 1 June 29-July 2, 2007: British police finding and defusing a car bomb in London 34 31 16 18 1 August, 2006: British officials stopping a terrorist plot to blow up planes flying to the U.S. 54 26 9 9 2 October, 2005: The recent terrorist bombings in Bali, Indonesia 13 31 26 29 1 July, 2005:  The terrorist bombings in  London, England 48 37 11 4 * March, 2004: The terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain 34 35 18 12 1 October, 2002: The terrorist bombing of a nightclub in Bali, Indonesia 20 34 25 20 1       d. The Obama administration’s policy on the use of military drones      May 23-26, 2013 17 24 22 36 1           6  www.people-press.org   ASK ALL: PEW.2 Thinking about the federal government’s response to major natural disasters, which comes closer to your view even if neither is exactly right? [READ; RANDOMIZE]1     May 23-26  2013  29 Federal spending in response to natural disasters must be offset by cuts to other programs     Federal spending in response to natural disasters is emergency aid that does not need to be  59   offset by cuts to other programs  13 Don’t know/Refused (VOL.)                                                     1  PEW.2 asked in conjunction with The Washington Post. 

Most Say Disaster Spending Does Not Require Offsetting Cuts: A Pew Research Center/Washington Post Survey

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Most Say Disaster Spending Does Not Require Offsetting Cuts: A Pew Research Center/Washington Post Survey

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