According to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted after the State of the Union address, 85 percent of Americans approved of President Bush proposals, but 54 percent did not believe the country would be able to afford them.  Included in the proposals, President Bush said that he wants to devote $37.7 billion to preparing for and preventing domestic terror attacks, with special emphasis on bolstering first responders -- police, firefighters and emergency medical services.  Mr. Bush’s proposed FY 2003 budget for homeland security would almost double the $19.5 billion in the FY 2002 budget, with $3.5 billion going to state and local emergency responders.  The increased funding represents the start of a focus on domestic defense that is promised to last throughout the Bush presidency. 

Some local news polls in February showed that over half of those polled view the economy as the most important problem today (a percentage equivalent to the national polls).  Of the remaining persons surveyed, half identified homeland defense and half identified the war on terrorism as the most important issues.  Even so, the national polls conducted by the New York Times/CBS News, Washington Post/ABC News, and USA Today/CNN have so far failed to separate the overseas military effort and homeland defense as distinct polling issues but instead lump the two together as “the US campaign against terrorism,” or “the war on terrorism.”

Since October 2001, President Bush’s approval rating for his handling of the campaign against terrorism has remained steady between 88-92%.  The percentage of Americans believing that the campaign against terrorism is going well is also in the solid 80s.  As of March, 66% of Americans believe that the US is doing all it reasonably can do to try to prevent further terrorist attacks, and 33% thought the US should do more.  Coupled with the Mr. Bush’s high overall approval rate (79-82%) and Americans’ apparent willingness to back an extended campaign against terrorism, Mr. Bush’s advocacy of homeland defense as part of a strong national defense and as a component in the overall strategy against terrorism is sure to carry great weight for the program’s approval and funding.  

Recent polls show that the majority of Americans are unwilling to run deficit spending for the sake of domestic programs.  Yet, it is not clear that Americans view homeland security programs as “domestic programs.” As long as the president and the national media continue to associate homeland defense with the popular campaign against terrorism, the domestic anti-terrorism programs that fall under the aegis of homeland defense are likely to enjoy approval ratings equivalent to the larger effort against terrorism.