Another thing that people generally get wrong is what government spending goes on, with wide swathes of people believing that vastly more money goes to welfare than actually is the case.
Federally, some kind of "welfare" comprises 60% of the budget[0]. Sure, you could argue that Social Security and Medicare are benefits paid for by what you put in during your working years, but that's just a facade over the fact that it is a transfer of wealth from those who are working to those who have retired from work.
I'm not sure what your definition of "vastly" is, but certainly there is a substantial amount of transfers from those who earn more to those who earn less. All of this is separate from a discussion on whether that is good for society, but the facts should be laid out.
The common trope is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen
https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/what-every-american-shoul...
Of that, ~52% is Social Security, unemployment, and labor programs (or ~40% of the total). ~28% Medicare and other health programs (or ~23% of the total).
Military is ~11% of the total.
Interest payments are a bit over 4% of the total.
International affairs is <1% of the total budget.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-bud...
ACA is a great example. Most of the core tenets are widely supported across the population. But, ask conservatives about the ACA by name and they often claim it's an awful law.
Contrariwise on abortion it doesn’t matter whether you call it abortion, choice, life, murder, or whatever else, the divide in opinions remains.