As President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency are launching an effort to reduce the size of various federal agencies, a new poll indicates that not all things are equal in terms of popular support for those agencies.
According to responses to a survey conducted by the market research firm YouGov, the Trump administration would be well-advised to tread carefully when it comes to anything having to do with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Around 1% of respondents said they would like to see that agency eliminated, while 46% expressed support for expanding it.
Conversely, and perhaps not surprisingly, only 16% said they were in favor of expanding the Internal Revenue Service, while a combined 35% were for either reducing it or getting rid of it altogether.
Attitudes on DOGE itself revealed a dramatic split, with 48% in favor of keeping or expanding it, and 37% wanting to reduce or do away with it.
In the category of “keeping things the same,” the U.S. Postal Service, despite decades-old service complaints, had the highest response at 48%, followed closely by the National Park Service with a 47% response.
Among the lowest support for keeping things the same was the Department of Education, with only 27%; and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement at 30%.
Although the Environmental Protection Agency has been much in the news in recent weeks with complaints aired about its lengthy permitting process for construction and development projects, a strong 61% said they were for either expanding or keeping the agency at its current size, compared with only 25% who would like to reduce or get rid of it.
That the move toward reducing government agencies has real life consequences is seen in an additional YouGov survey showing that some 27% of respondents said they themselves or a family member, “has been personally affected by recent cuts in government agencies and programs.”
Added a narrative accompanying the survey: respondents who said they were affected by the recent government cuts mentioned that they felt the impact in terms of “job loss and insecurity, financial hardship, education cuts, and problems accessing health care.”
March 7, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
