Most Americans Say Government Regulations Usually Hurt Business, But Few Want to See Some of the Major Ones Changed
One of the targets of Republicans going into the 2012 elections is government regulation that they say hurts businesses in the U.S. and is a drag on the economy. On that point, most Americans agree — in general, that is. But when it comes to specific areas of regulation, a new poll finds that they want to keep or even expand an array of current rules.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 8-12 found that 52 percent believe government regulation of business usually does more harm than good compared to 40 percent who believe such regulation is necessary to protect the public interest.
But when asked about specific areas of regulation, the results tell a different story.
Fifty-three percent of Americans overall want to strengthen regulation of food production and packaging and another 36 percent want to keep the current regulations the same. There’s a big partisan gap on this and other regulations that Pew asked about. Sixty-three percent want to strengthen regulations governing the food industry compared to 44 percent of Republicans. Forty-three percent of Republicans want to keep the regulations as they are, compared to 29 percent of Democrats.
When it comes to environmental protection regulations — a particular target of the Republican presidential candidates — the poll finds 50 percent of Americans want to see a strengthening of environmental protections and another 29 percent want to keep them as they are. Sixty-four percent of Democrats want to strengthen the rules compared to 28 percent of Republicans. A plurality of Republicans (36 percent) want to reduce the rules.
The numbers in favor of strengthening regulations for automobile safety and efficiency, workplace health and safety and prescription drugs are not as high as for food and the environment, but the numbers are still significant and very few Americans want to see regulations reduced in those areas.
Pew said that the substantial partisan gaps found in the new poll generally are about the same that they’ve been since 1995.
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