In recent days, various members of Congress (the Republican Study Committee, Minnesota Representative and Tea Party Leader Michele Bachmann, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul) have proposed massive budget cuts to education and social safety net programs. A key part of these plans is either elimination of, or deep cuts in, the Department of Education.

Despite all this talk from those proposing these plans that “the American people spoke last November” and they want “massive spending cuts”, current polling shows the opposite. According to Gallup, 67% of Americans oppose cuts to education and 55% oppose cuts to anti-poverty programs. Only a small minority support cuts in education (32%) and anti-poverty programs (39%).

The difference in priorities between some of those in Washington and large majorities of those outside Washington could not be more stark.