CBS News/New York Times Poll: Does the public support higher taxes for the rich?

[ProSense]

Does the public support higher taxes for the rich?

Posted by Sarah Dutton



In order to reduce the federal budget deficit, President Obama has proposed allowing the Bush-era tax cuts for high income households to expire, effectively raising the taxes such people pay. The most recent CBS News/New York Times Poll, conducted April 15-20, found just over half of the public thought deficit reduction measures should include a tax hike on households with incomes of $250,000 or more, while slightly fewer, 44 percent, think the government should address the budget deficit without raising taxes on these households.

Democrats and Republicans are on opposite sides of the fence on this issue: 66 percent of Republicans think people in high-income households should not pay more in taxes, while 65 percent of Democrats think they should. Fifty-five of independents agree with the Democrats. (see chart below)

Even most of those who fall into the upper income range support raising taxes for $250,000+ households. In the poll, 59 percent of those with household incomes over $100,000 said they would support higher taxes for those making $250,000+ for deficit reduction (39 percent do not).

Other polls have also shown majority support for increasing taxes on upper income Americans. A Gallup poll conducted in April found 59 percent said that next year's federal budget should include higher taxes for families with household incomes of $250,000 or more. In an April McClatchy/Marist poll, 64 percent said they supported increasing taxes on people with incomes over $250,000 in order to deal with the federal budget deficit. Those questions, as well as the CBS News/New York Times question, explicitly mentioned raising taxes in order to address the deficit.



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Interesting! Here are charts from the Gallup poll linked to above:







That was an April 11 poll by Gallup (and the results are similar to the CBS/NYT April 15 poll).

Here is Gallup's recent poll, April 20:



So who the hell did Gallup poll to yield such different results on raising taxes in less than 10 days?

The current poll also indicates that a plurality of Americans worry that Democrats are going to cut defense too much, which could mean that the sample was biased conservative/right.

[craigmatic]

1. Sounds great to me I hope the president is listening.

[msongs]

2. the president that just recently approved extending the bush tax cuts on the rich? THAT president? n

[ProSense]

3. No,

the other one.

[slipslidingaway]

4. Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare-for-all (#3 of 6)

but what will the leaders allow into the discussions, that is the question.

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/12/09/two-thirds-support-3/

Two-thirds of Americans support Medicare-for-all (#3 of 6)

Informative polls show two-thirds support for single-payer
By Kip Sullivan, JD

"...In Part 2 of this six-part series, I reported on the results of two “citizen jury” experiments in which advocates for single-payer, managed competition, and high-deductible policies spoke to, and were questioned by, “juries” that were representative of America. In the case of the 1993 “jury” sponsored by the Jefferson Center, 71 percent voted for single-payer. In the case of the 1996 “jury,” 61 percent voted for single-payer when no specific information about its cost to individuals was presented, and 79 percent voted for a single-payer system that would have lowered premium and out-of-pocket costs by as much as taxes rose. Both juries rejected proposals relying on health insurance companies by huge majorities.

Many polls that ask about support for Medicare-for-all produce results that confirm the citizen jury findings. But others don’t. What explains that inconsistency?

The more they know about single-payer, the more they like it

In this paper (Part 3 in a six-part series) I will present data from polls that ask about single-payer, and then inquire why some polls show landslide majorities for single-payer and some do not. We will find a clear pattern: Polls that convey more information tend to report higher levels of support than polls that convey little information, and polls that convey accurate information tend to report more support than polls that convey inaccurate information..."

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. Medicare for all should be imposed

Yes we can!

[slipslidingaway]

7. Or ...

we need entitlement reform because we dare not discuss a national HC system for all funded by taxes.

[ProSense]

6. Yeah, Americans supported

taxing the rich too.

Somewhere between December and now, the support (even among Democrats) for taxing people earning $250,000 plus seems to have dropped off.

Where are the advocates for ending the Bush-era tax cuts for all incomes?