50% Favor Mix of Cuts, Taxes To Reduce Deficit, But 64% Oppose Paying Higher Taxes
Fifty percent (50%) of Americans think President Obama and Congress should consider a mix of spending cuts and tax increases in looking for ways to cut the federal deficit, but nearly two-out-of-three adults (64%) are unwilling to pay higher taxes themselves to reduce that deficit.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% of Americans are willing to pay more in taxes to cut the federal deficit. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Still, that’s up nine points from May of last year when only 18% were willing to pay higher taxes to reduce the deficit.
However, just six percent (6%) of adults think Congress and the president should consider only tax increases in looking for ways to cut the deficit. Thirty-six percent (36%) say only spending cuts should be considered.
This marks a slight shift from last November when 41% called for spending cuts only to reduce the deficit, four percent (4%) wanted tax hikes only and 46% favored a mix of the two. In February 2010, though, 52% preferred a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes, while 35% said Congress and the president should only consider spending cuts.
Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Likely U.S. Voters favor the deficit reduction plan President Obama announced on Monday which calls for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases, but 42% oppose it. Most like the president’s idea of setting a minimum tax rate for those making more than $1 million a year, but voters are lukewarm to his proposal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 annually.
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The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on September 21-22, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology.
If a mix of spending cuts and tax increases is proposed as a deficit reduction package, 59% of Americans think there should be more spending cuts in it. Just 24% feel the proposal should be heavier on tax hikes. Seventeen percent (17%) are undecided.
Regardless of their own opinions, however, a plurality (48%) believes that the debt reduction agreement reached by the president and Congress is likely to propose more tax increases than spending cuts. Twenty-four percent (24%) say it’s more likely to have more spending cuts than tax increases. A sizable 28% is not sure which it will favor.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Americans say they have been following news reports about the president’s debt reduction plan at least somewhat closely, with 46% who are following Very Closely.
Fifty-five percent (55%) of Republicans think the president and Congress should consider spending cuts only in looking for ways to cut the federal deficit. Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats and 51% of adults not affiliated with either of the major parties prefer a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.
But 72% of both unaffiliated adults and Republicans are unwilling to pay higher taxes to reduce the deficit. Only a plurality (48%) of Democrats agrees.
Similarly, 78% of Republicans and 63% of unaffiliateds say there should be more spending cuts included in any deficit reduction plan that has a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes. Democrats are evenly divided on what the proposal should include.
Most voters continue to believe that spending cuts and tax cuts are good for the economy, but 60% expect spending to rise under the Obama administration.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of all voters think thoughtful spending cuts should be considered in every program of the federal government as the nation searches for solutions to the budget crisis.
One-out-of-two voters (50%) now believe that Obama’s economic policies have hurt the economy. |
