But Republican Bill McInturff and Democrat Peter Hart, the pollsters who conducted the survey, said the poll raises warning signs for anyone proposing cuts to the three main entitlement programs, including Medicaid, that provide health and retirement benefits to seniors and the poor.
In heated exchanges on the issue in the Lords on Monday, Lord Strathclyde repeated that the House's clerks had ruled that the amendment, put forward by Labour peer Lord Hart of Chilton and backed by senior Lib Dem Lord Rennard, was outside the scope of the bill.