Democrat and Republican voters trust their own parties much more to handle Social Security and government ethics and corruption, but independent voters trust Republicans more on these issues, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey.
Overall, the survey found voters evenly divided: 42% of likely U.S. voters trust Republicans more to handle Social Security, while 41% trust Democrats more, and 17% are not sure.
As for handling government ethics and corruption, 44% say they trust Democrats more and an equal 44% say they trust Republicans more. Another 12% are undecided.
But by a 14-point margin, independent voters trust the GOP more on both of these two issues.
A majority of voters under 40 trust Democrats more on both ethics and Social Security, while a majority of voters 65 and older trust Republicans more to handle government ethics and corruption.
Forty-eight percent of whites, 23% of black voters, and 32% of other minorities trust Republicans more to handle government ethics and corruption, while 38% of whites, 61% of black voters, and 40% of other minorities trust Democrats more on that issue.
Forty-seven percent of whites, 33% of black voters, and 42% of other minorities trust Republicans more to handle Social Security, while 42% of whites, 55% of black voters, and 40% of other minorities trust Democrats more on that issue.
In terms of income brackets, Democrats have their highest level of trust on both ethics and Social Security among voters earning between $100,000 and $200,000 a year.
While 51% of government employees trust Democrats more on both ethics and Social Security, private sector workers and retirees are more likely to trust Republicans on both those issues.
The survey of 900 U.S. likely voters was conducted on Jan. 10-12, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.