Current Questions on Government Spending and Public Debt (March 2024)

The short survey on current issues relating to government spending and public debt was conducted by the opinion research institute forsa on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. In the survey period from 18.03.2024 to 20.03.2024, the German-speaking population aged 14 and over was asked in telephone interviews (CATI) about their attitudes to government spending and government debt. In particular, the focus is on the assessment of the debt brake and various options for reforming it. Respondents were selected using a multi-stage random sample as part of a multi-topic survey (policy BUS) including landline and mobile phone numbers (dual-frame sample).<br>Assessment of Germany´s overall financial situation in terms of income and expenditure; assessment of Germany´s debt burden compared to most other industrialized countries; opinion on government debt (government debt should generally be avoided, is generally not a problem, only makes sense if it is used for investments for the future); government spends too much vs. too little money on various political and social tasks (health and care, defense, social affairs, climate protection, housing, integration of immigrants, pensions); opinion on the state only taking out new larger loans in exceptional emergency situations such as natural disasters (debt brake should remain as it is, it should be reformed or it should be abolished completely); evaluation of various proposals for reforming the debt regulation (change the debt limit so that the state can generally take on more debt than before, create a transitional rule so that even in the year following an emergency situation it is still possible to take on slightly more debt than usual, allow higher debt to be taken on if the economic situation is worse than expected, allow higher debt to be taken on for defense spending, allow higher debt to be taken on for investments in climate protection, allow higher debt to be taken on for investments in infrastructure such as roads and railways).

Demography: sex; age; education; income level low, medium, high (net equivalent income); city size; party preference in the next federal election; voting behavior in the last federal election.

Additionally coded were: Respondent ID; region west/east; weighting factor.