Poll: Public would rather pay down debt with surplus

Despite support among Republicans for a tax cut, pivotal ticket-splitting voters are "closer to Democrats" when it comes to plans for allocating the budget surplus, according to a confidential survey taken for the Senate GOP, the Associated Press reported.

"On paying down the debt they are closer to us than to the Democrats," the survey said.

The poll was taken last November and distributed to GOP senators just as President Clinton's impeachment trial was getting under way. "To expand beyond the base of Republican tax cutters, we need to stress debt reduction and Social Security," it concluded.

The survey was taken by Voter Consumer Research, a Bethesda, Md., polling company, to help Senate Republicans chart a course for this year that would "put Democrats on the defensive."

The survey was accompanied by a memo from National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. In the memo, McConnell wrote that Social Security, tax cuts and education should be the three issues to focus on for the coming year.