President's Nontaxpaying Base Is Intact
By BRAD O'LEARY
Investor's Business Daily
Posted Monday, May 04, 2009 4:20 PM PT
During the 2008 presidential campaign, for the first time, Zogby International and "The O'Leary Report" probed the differences of opinion between the 70% of the American electorate that pay federal income taxes and the 30% that have no federal income tax liability.
We found that nontaxpayers, as a voting bloc, were some of Obama's most enthusiastic supporters, whereas taxpayers generally disagreed with his economic vision and his craving for centralization and wealth redistribution.
On the pages of Investor's Business Daily, we dubbed the nontaxpayers "the overlooked soldiers in Obama's war on success."
Socialism's Supporters
Now that we are 100 days into Barack Obama's presidency, I thought it would be good to revisit these two demographic groups and see where they stand on the Obama administration's actions and proposals to date.
The Zogby/O'Leary Report 100-Days Poll was conducted April 24-27, surveyed 3,937 people who voted in the 2008 presidential election, and is weighted to reflect the exact outcome of the election (i.e. 54% of those polled voted for Obama and 46% voted for McCain). The poll has a margin-of-error of plus-or-minus 1.6 percentage points.
The results show that taxpayers and nontaxpayers are still divided over policy and the general direction our nation should take.
For example, we found that there is much more support for a socialist economy among the ranks of nontaxpaying voters, whereas taxpayers, by far, prefer a capitalist economic system. The poll asked:
Which of the following do you think is a better economic system: A or B?
A: A system in which the public or the state has ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.
B: A system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth are privately owned and controlled rather than state owned or controlled with the state regulating them.
An overwhelming majority of taxpayers (76%) prefer statement B, a capitalist system — however, only a slim majority of nontaxpayers side with B (55%). In addition, nearly one-third of nontaxpayers agree with Statement A, which describes a socialist system, while only 12% of taxpayers prefer A.
On the energy front, a majority of taxpayers (57%) want the Obama administration to make energy cheaper by developing all sources of U.S. energy, including coal, nuclear power and offshore drilling in the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). Only 38% of taxpayers think that America ought to reduce its production of fossil fuels that might cause global warming.
Nontaxpayers, on the other hand, are basically split on the issue, with 48% favoring the development of all U.S. energy sources and 46% favoring a reduction in fossil fuels.
Poor Marks
Taxpayers and nontaxpayers came closer to finding common ground on the cap-and-trade issue. A majority of taxpayers (58%) and nontaxpayers (51%) oppose President Obama's plan to impose cap-and-trade laws, which would limit the total carbon dioxide emissions companies could release into the atmosphere, and also substantially raise consumer energy prices.
Also, 58% of taxpayers were supportive of the "tea party" demonstrations that took place on April 15.
The purpose of this poll was not to examine the overall popularity of President Obama, which remains relatively high. The purpose was to see how voters feel about the actions and proposals of the Obama administration in the first 100 days, and the results show it's getting low marks.
O'Leary is publisher of "The O'Leary Report" and a former NBC Westwood One talk show host. His latest book is "Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech." For more poll results, see www.olearyreport.com.
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