Democrats.com Polls

Democrats.com Poll: 68% Want Our Troops Safely Home in 6 Months

Bob Fertik — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:56:34 -0400

As Congress considers President Bush's request for another $100 billion for Iraq, 68% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone poll of 628 adults conducted from May 1-4, 2008 by ICR.

The poll marks a 14% increase from 54% in September. Most of that increase (11%) came from those who want Congress to require Bush to use existing funds to bring our troops safely home, bringing that total to 51% - a majority of Americans.

Broken down by party, 85% of Democrats want our troops home within 6 months, as do 78% of Independents. By contrast, only 32% of Republicans want our troops home soon.

Democratic support grew by 15% since September, and Independent support grew by 20%. By contrast, Republican support was unchanged.

The new poll differs slightly from last September's poll because Congressional Democrats have proposed giving President Bush $70 billion more than he requested in order to avoid another unpopular funding vote before the November election.

The new poll asked: "President Bush wants Congress to spend 100 billion dollars more in tax dollars this year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq." The comparison data below is only for the identical questions, with last September's data immediately below in italics.

Should Congress	Total	Dem	Ind	Rep
Give President Bush 100 billion dollars to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for the rest of 2008 and beyond	13.4%	4.9%	8.2%	33.1%
Give President Bush 170 billion dollars to keep U.S. troops in Iraq in 2009 and beyond	9.8%	5.6%	4.4%	22.5%
Give President Bush 50 billion dollars to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 Months	16.8% 13.8%	19.0% 13.9%	17.7% 19.9%	11.5% 9.6%
Require President Bush to use existing funds to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 months	51.2% 40.4%	65.7% 56.4%	60.5% 38.5%	20.6% 22.5%
Don't know	5.8%	3.6%	4.1%	10.6%
Refused to answer	3.0%	1.2%	5.2%	1.7%

Safely home within 6 month subtotal: 5/08 9/07 Increase	67.8% 54.2% 13.6%	84.7% 70.3% 14.4%	78.2% 58.4% 19.8%	32.1% 32.1% 0.0%
Margin of Error: +/- 3.91 (95% confidence level)

Despite overwhelming public support for using the "power of the purse" to bring our troops home, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly refused to even consider this approach. As a result, the approval rating of Congress has fallen to historic lows.

Since last September's poll, economic growth has slowed to a near-recession and a record 73% of Americans believe America is on the "wrong track." A record 68% of Americans oppose the war in Iraq and growing number of Americans believe the recession in the U.S. is closely tied to the $12 billion monthly cost of the occupation of Iraq. Since February, anti-war groups have emphasized the financial cost of the occupation.

On January 16, 42 House Democrats voted against Bush's previous request for $70 billion. A total of 92 House Democrats have told Bush they would only fund the safe deployment of U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of his term in January 2009.

"More than two-thirds of Americans want to bring our troops safely home within 6 months," said Bob Fertik of Democrats.com. "It's long past time for George Bush and the Democratic Congress to listen to the American people. The 500,000 members of Democrats.com will continue to urge Congress to oppose any more funds for Iraq," Fertik added.

80,000 Americans have emailed their Senators and Representatives to oppose any more funds for Iraq:
http://www.democrats.com/iraq-petition

Which Democrat Do You Support for President?

Bob Fertik — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:53:10 -0500

Democrats.com Poll Finds Majority Want to Bring Our Troops Home from Iraq in 6 Months

Bob Fertik — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:17:47 -0400

As Congress considers President Bush's request for another $200 billion for Iraq, 54% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone poll of 618 adults conducted from September 6-9, 2007 by ICR.

An overwhelming majority (73%) of Americans want U.S. troops home in a year, the poll found.

This is the first poll that asked voters to choose between President Bush's funding request of $200 billion and other funding options.

The single largest group - 40% - want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months using funds Congress has already given him for Iraq, which now totals $450 billion. That is the position advocated by Democratic Presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

Another 14% would give President Bush $50 billion more to bring our troops home within 6 months.

Another 19% would give President Bush $200 billion more - the amount he requested - but would require a deadline to bring U.S. troops safely home within a year.

Just one in eight Americans (13%) support the Republican position of giving Bush a $200 billion check without any deadline.

We asked this question:

President Bush wants Congress to spend 200 billion dollars more in tax dollars next year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq with no plans to bring them home. Should Congress:

	Total	Dem	Ind	Rep
Give President Bush 200 billion dollars without conditions	12.8%	5.4%	10.4%	31%
Give President Bush 200 billion dollars but require him to bring all U.S. troops safely home within a year	19.1%	16.2%	19.9%	19.8%
Give President Bush 50 billion dollars to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 Months	13.8%	13.9%	19.9%	9.6%
Require President Bush to use existing funds to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 months	40.4%	56.4%	38.5%	22.5%
Don't know	10.8%	5.8%	9.7%	13.6%
Refused to answer	3.2%	2.3%	1.5%	3.3%

6 month subtotal	54.2%	70.3%	58.4%	32.1%
1 year subtotal	73.3%	86.5%	78.3%	51.9%

Among Republican voters, a solid 52% majority support a deadline of one year or less, while just 31% support a blank check for President Bush. Remarkably, 23% of Republicans support the Kucinich position of bringing troops home within 6 months using existing funds.

Democratic leaders have not presented their own funding plan, but said last week they were leaning towards providing Bush with his full request of $200 billion with no deadlines - the position supported by just 13% of Americans.

In July, leaders of the Progressive Caucus told President Bush they would only provide new funds to bring U.S. troops safely home by the end of his term in January 2009, which is now 16 months away. They did not specify how much funding they would support. 70 Members of Congress (including Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul) signed this letter, and several more Members are expected to sign in the coming days.

Update 1: Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm, uses a heavily biased version of our question:

Do you favor an immediate withdrawal of the United States military forces from Iraq, within the six months?

The only answers are yes or no. Obviously the "no" answer could mean many different things so it's analytically useless, but the "yes" answers are fascinating, especially since they are broken out by state, and in Iowa by party:

		Feb Mar	Apr May	Jun Jul	Aug Sep	Oct Nov
FL	Likely voters			53%	51%
GA	Likely voters	42%	44%	45%	41%
IA	Rep Caucus		54%	56%	51%	51%
IA	Dem Caucus		81%	83%	85%	85%
MI	Likely voters			54%
WI	Likely voters			64%
NJ	Likely voters			56%
PA	Likely voters			52%

This sample includes two southern states (GA and FL), three midwestern states (IA, MI, WI), and two eastern states (PA, NJ). While it's impossible to average these numbers or extrapolate them to represent regions, support for a six-month withdrawal seems strongest in the Midwest.

Our poll shows the opposite - support for a six-month withdrawal is weakest in the "North Central" region, but some of that difference is "made up" when 1-year withdrawal is included. The South most strongly supports a blank check for endless occupation, but even there it's under 16%.

	NE	NC	S	W
Give President Bush 200 billion dollars without conditions	10.6%	12.6%	15.7%	10.2%
Give President Bush 200 billion dollars but require him to bring all U.S. troops safely home within a year	12.4%	23.8%	18.8%	20.2%
Give President Bush 50 billion dollars to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 Months	18.0%	10.5%	16.4%	9.4%
Require President Bush to use existing funds to bring U.S. troops safely home within 6 months	46.4%	34.6%	34.1%	51.2%
6 Months subtotal	64.4%	44.9%	50.5%	60.6%