In their monomaniacal obsession with budget cuts, Republicans and conservatives feel compelled to pretend that there is little public support for any increased federal spending. Recent polling, however, indicates that there is overwhelming public support for one particular category of big-ticket spending — modernizing America’s deteriorating infrastructure, according to Ruy Teixeira’s latest ‘Public Opinion Snapshot’ at the Center for American Progress web pages. Teixeira explains:

Eighty percent declared themselves in agreement with President Barack Obama’s State of the Union call for a major effort to rebuild and modernize America’s infrastructure in a new Hart Research/Public Opinion Strategies survey for the Rockefeller Foundation.

Nor will conservatives be very happy with the high levels of public support for progressive measures to facilitate infrastructure modernization indicated in the poll:

What’s more, the public backs a number of government actions to provide additional funding for infrastructure projects. These include a National Infrastructure Bank (60 percent support), issuing national transportation bonds (59 percent), and eliminating oil company subsidies (58 percent).

So much for the GOP myth that increases in government spending are opposed by the public across the board. Members of congress should not be intimidated by conservative fear-mongering about federal spending for needed modernization. As Teixeira puts it, “Infrastructure investment is important — and the public’s got your back.”