Americans are, and have always been, naturally skeptical of government. As the bureaucratic state expanded and became increasingly burdensome on the average American, trust in its ability to be effective and efficient fell dramatically. Today, fewer than one out of every five voters trusts the federal government.

How do Americans feel about federal regulation?

Over 60% of voters nationwide believe the federal government has too much control over our day-to-day lives. However, they can’t quite define exactly what that means. Under half of voters feel there is too much regulation in a variety of areas including earning a living, buying and selling goods and services, and reporting information to the government.

Looking only at voters who agree with the idea that the federal government overregulates our lives, there is still not an overwhelming belief that the specific points tested are over regulated by the federal government. In fact, the 23% of those who say the federal government is too involved in the day-to-day lives of Americans did not believe any of these specific area, such as how much information the government collects or how Americans can use their home and surrounding property, are overregulated.

What Next?

Our movement must help connect voters’ underlying intuition that the federal government is too involved in our lives with concrete examples of the regulations that intrude on daily lives. If the public is better able to articulate which individual regulations are burdensome and why, we will be more successful at pushing back on federal overregulation.

We hope to be able to highlight instances where federal regulation burdens Americans. If you have stories of people in your state being impacted by federal regulation, please reach out to Erin Norman (enorman@spn.org).