The ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior

Do People in Government Waste Tax Money 1958 -2016

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Data Table

  '58 '60 '62 '64 '66 '68 '70 '72 '74 '76 '78 '80 '82 '84 '86 '88 '90 '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16
A Lot 43
(769)		 ** ** 47
(679)		 ** 59
(793)		 69
(1034)		 66
(1502)		 74
(1862)		 74
(2119)		 77
(1767)		 78
(1258)		 66
(923)		 65
(1244)		 ** 63
(1112)		 67
(1305)		 67
(1514)		 70
(1239)		 59
(885)		 61
(782)		 59
(902)		 48
(624)		 61
(643)		 ** 72
(1523)		 ** 71
(4168)		 ** 71
(3022)
Some 42
(752)		 ** ** 44
(639)		 ** 34
(461)		 26
(396)		 30
(686)		 22
(562)		 20
(571)		 19
(431)		 18
(282)		 29
(408)		 29
(566)		 ** 33
(583)		 30
(592)		 30
(668)		 27
(483)		 39
(590)		 34
(439)		 38
(588)		 49
(642)		 37
(388)		 ** 26
(542)		 ** 26
(1533)		 ** 25
(1055)
Not Very Much 10
(183)		 ** ** 7
(95)		 ** 4
(55)		 4
(54)		 2
(53)		 1
(34)		 3
(82)		 2
(38)		 2
(32)		 2
(32)		 4
(69)		 ** 2
(43)		 2
(37)		 2
(41)		 2
(34)		 1
(22)		 4
(45)		 3
(39)		 3
(43)		 2
(21)		 ** 1
(30)		 ** 3
(178)		 ** 4
(166)
Don't Know 4
(70)		 ** ** 2
(34)		 ** 3
(34)		 1
(18)		 2
(41)		 2
(57)		 3
(94)		 2
(55)		 2
(35)		 3
(40)		 2
(41)		 ** 2
(30)		 1
(28)		 1
(26)		 1
(13)		 0
(3)		 1
(12)		 1
(12)		 0
(2)		 1
(8)		 ** 1
(14)		 ** 0
(24)		 ** 0
(4)
N 1774 0 0 1447 0 1343 1502 2282 2515 2866 2291 1607 1403 1920 0 1768 1962 2249 1769 1500 1278 1541 1311 1060 0 2109 0 5903 0 4247

Percentage Within Study Year
Table 5A.3.
Source: VCF0606 in the ANES Cumulative Data File dataset, weighted with VCF0009z
Link to see data by mode (2012, 2016)

Percent among demographic groups who responded:

A Lot
Some
Not Very Much

Question Text:

"Do you think that people in the government waste a lot of money we pay in taxes, waste some of it, or don't waste very much of it?"

Note:

2012 and 2016 data are for the combined (face-to-face and internet) sample.

For 2012, the 'Don't Know/Other' category represents face-to-face Don't Know cases only (in the 2012 Web instrument, a Don't Know category was not present).

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