A few weeks ago, Larry Bartels presented a new paper here arguing that governments around the world spend less than their citizens want.  Most of his evidence comes from the international ISSP survey, which asks:

Listed
below are various areas of government spending. 
Please show whether you would like to see more or less government spending
in each area.  Remember that if you say
“much more,” it might require a tax increase to pay for it.

The U.S.-based GSS reaches similar results with almost exactly the same wording:

Listed below are various areas of government spending. Please indicate
whether you would like to see more or less government spending in each
area. Remember that if you say “much more,” it might require a tax
increase to pay for it.

I think this wording is seriously biased.  After all, it (a) suggests that moderate spending increases don’t require higher taxes; and (b) fails to mention that spending cuts would reduce taxes.  If you reworded the question in a sensible way, support for government spending would fall.

But how precisely should you reword it?  “Remember that taxes are a monotonically increasing function of spending” is ridiculous.  “Remember that the more the government spends, the more is has to tax, and the less it spends, the more it can cut taxes” seems OK, but it’s still too wordy.

Can anyone do better?  If so, please share.