Current Questions on the Federal Budget (July 2024)

The short survey on the federal budget was conducted by forsa on behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government. In the survey period from 18.07.2024 to 22.07.2024, the German-speaking population aged 14 and over in private households was asked in telephone interviews (CATI) about their attitudes to government spending and the federal government´s plans for the federal budget and the growth initiative. Respondents were selected using a multi-stage random sample as part of the forsa multi-topic survey (Politik-BUS), including landline and mobile phone numbers (dual-frame sample).<br>Assessment of government spending on the following tasks (for health and care, defense, social affairs, climate protection, housing, integration of immigrants, pensions and internal security); if the government spends more money on one part of society, another part will automatically suffer vs. the whole of society benefits from it; general knowledge of the federal government´s plans for the 2025 federal budget (knows what the federal government has planned, has heard about it, but does not know any details, has not yet heard about it); assessment of the agreement on the 2025 federal budget; knowledge of specific plans in connection with the 2025 federal budget (compliance with the debt brake, higher spending on defense, more money for security authorities and 1. 000 new jobs in the federal police force, federal states to receive more money for childcare and support for schoolchildren in difficult social environments, more money for social housing, loans for Deutsche Bahn to invest in busy routes and outdated railroad stations); assessment of these plans as rather good or rather bad; level of knowledge of the planned growth initiative for more economic growth; assessment of the growth initiative; knowledge of concrete plans in connection with the growth initiative (more incentives to work with the citizen´s income and more sanctions for those who refuse reasonable work, tax benefits in the first three years for skilled workers from abroad who come to Germany, people who are still working at retirement age should be subsidized with bonuses, no more taxes and social security contributions on overtime bonuses, refugees should receive a work permit unbureaucratically and more quickly).

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

Additionally coded were: Serial number; region west/east; weighting factor.