Demonstrators protest corporate tax cuts vs. governmental budget cuts to education, health care and the environment outside a Chase bank in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles on April 18, 2011. UPI/Jim Ruymen |
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WASHINGTON, July 17 (UPI) -- U.S. adults are more likely to say tax increases for those with high incomes will help the economy as to say it will hurt, a poll released Tuesday indicated.
The Pew Research Center for People and the Press reported that 44 percent of those surveyed said that President Obama's plan to increase taxes for those with incomes of $250,000 or more will help the economy and the same percentage said it would make the tax system fairer. On the other side, 24 percent say it would not help the economy and 21 percent say it would make the system less fair.
The poll found sharp partisan differences.
While 64 percent of Democrats said raising taxes on high-income earners would help the economy and 65 percent said it would make the tax system fairer, 41 percent of Republicans said it would hurt the economy. Only 27 percent of Republicans said the tax hike would help the economy and 24 percent that it would make no difference.
Only 15 percent of Democrats say the tax increase would make no difference and 11 percent that it would hurt the economy.
Among Republicans, 36 percent said the tax increase would make the system less fair, 30 percent said it would make no difference and 25 percent said it would make the system more fair.
Among independents, 41 percent say the tax increase would help the economy, 18 percent say it would hurt and 30 percent that it would make no difference.
Almost two-thirds of those who identified themselves as Democrats or Republicans knew that President Obama is the candidate advocating the tax increase.
The telephone survey of 1,015 adults was conducted by Princeton Data Source between July 12 and July 15. The margin of error was 3.6 percentage points for the entire sample and between 6.4 and 6.7 points for the partisan subgroups.
