Most Americans think the United States should raise taxes for the rich to balance the budget, according to a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll released Monday.
President Barack Obama last month signed into law a two-year extension of Bush-era tax cuts for millions of Americans, including the wealthiest, in a compromise with Republicans.
Republicans, who this week take control of the House of Representatives, want to extend all Bush-era tax cuts “permanently” for the middle class and wealthier Americans. They are also demanding spending cuts to curb the $1.3 trillion deficit.
Sixty-one percent of Americans polled would rather see taxes for the wealthy increased as a first step to tackling the deficit, the poll showed.
The next most popular way — chosen by 20 percent — was to cut defense spending.
Four percent would cut the Medicare government health insurance program for the elderly, and 3 percent would cut the Social Security retirement program, the poll showed.
Asked which part of the world they would fix first, the largest proportion of respondents — 36 percent — chose Washington, compared with 23 percent who picked the Middle East and 14 percent who chose Haiti.
The poll included a random sample of 1,067 adults across the United States from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2. The margin of error may be plus or minus 3 percentage points, 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair said.
How about cutting spending ACROSS TH BOARD BY 10%?
JimBO60666, have you reduced your personal spending by 10% lately? Maybe you haven’t noticed but the cost of goods and services increases as time progresses. It’s called inflation.
At the very minimum, government spending should increase year-over-year to account for inflation.
Cutting government spending means fewer services and protections for the American tx payers. Do you think reduced spending is going to get you yet another tax cut or are you just spouting some BS tea party line that Sarah Palin taught you on her reality show?
“The rich”? Who is that? The man who built up a family company from nothing through adversity and hardship after decades to become wealthy? The great granddaughter of that man who learns on her 21st birthday that she is now co-steward of her forebears’ hard-earned money? Who then teaches herself how to manage and invest, how to give philanthropically? Who are the rich? The MBA who once advocated for sourcing labor overseas, profited, and now sees the full ramifications of that stance?
So we’re going to flatten the American dream because debt is too big. No reason to work that hard. You won’t be able to keep it, anyway.
By the way, I was laid off six months last year. I fought like hell to get a job. And I got it. That one was pretty awful, so now I have a new one that I love. I’m never going to be “rich.” But I don’t want to tax the “rich” to pay for stupid programs.
Say in twenty years, what’s rich now isn’t paying for fat government. Know what happens? We lower the definition of rich. Maybe you start paying for fat government now. Maybe your kids do.
Everyone is still hurting. This poll just shows the public doesn’t understand who made this economic mess. Wait, “Wall Street” did. Versus Main Street, right? Isn’t that it? Doesn’t that have a nice ring? Well guess what, Wall Street has a lot of parts. Like so many things with a lot of parts, some work well, some do not.
If we’re looking to tax someone, maybe we should tax anyone in public office longer than five years. How could a sane, ethical person possibly maintain their sanity or moral compass in a such a corrupt system? It is growing too big too fast, with too many people lost in its folds, profiting by its girth.
Endless wars and illegal aliens and Big oil and terrible foriegn policy and you as voters who love it all!
Reduce government by 30%