Republicans Out of Touch on Taxes

The Republican candidates keep on beating a horse that died along ago; that horse being, let’s lower taxes for the rich from 35% to 25%. Who on earth, aside from the filthy rich buys that baloney? I did a little research.

A CNN poll last year had 63% saying the “super committee” should  increase taxes on higher-income Americans and businesses. Two thirds want no major changes in Social Security and Medicare. They somewhat split on military spending.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC new poll said that 81% of Americans think it is a good idea to increase taxes on incomes of more than $1 million a year.

Another Gallup Poll had 62% wanting higher taxes on the wealthy and 72% wanting changes in the tax code to increase taxes on those making over a million a year.

Then you have the Hill Poll who says 3/4s of the people want lower taxes for the wealthy. I wonder who they polled? FOX news has the public for a 30% tax rate for the rich; of course, they show no bias.

A CBS Poll say 64% of Americans want mare taxes on rich folk. They also like the Buffet Rule.

Bruce Bartlett used to be a supply side economics dude compiled a list of polls that say the rich should pay the fair share. He has written 7 books  included the NY Times best seller, Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy. His latest book The New American Economy: the Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward. He say there are about 20 polls the show the public want higher taxes on the wealthy and that taxes should just be raised period.

The list of polls compiled by Barlett is below. We recommend you go to his site to view the supporting links, all provided in his posts, as well as the full details, as we don't want to take away from his site. This list ends in early June, but it is doubtful that any serious changes would have occurred since then. In fact, there was another poll just two days ago that said the same thing. Nearly 80 percent of voters in the four states backed the idea

Main Street wants the rich to pay their fair share.

June 9: Washington Post/ABC News poll: 61 percent of people believe higher taxes will be necessary to reduce the deficit.

June 7: Pew Research: strong support for tax increases to reduce the deficit; 67 percent of people favor raising the wage cap for Social Security taxes, 66 percent raising income tax rates on those making more than $250,000, and 62 percent favor limiting tax deductions for large corporations.

May 26: Lake Research poll of Colorado voters: 44 - 25 percent support higher taxes on the rich to help Social Security.

May 13: Bloomberg poll said two thirds of people believe reducing the budget deficit will require higher taxes

May 12 Ipsos/Reuters poll: three-fifths would support higher taxes to reduce the deficit.

May 4: Quinnipiac poll found that people favor raising taxes on those making more than $250,000 to reduce the deficit by a 69 percent to 28 percent margin.

April 29: Gallup poll found that only 20 percent of people believe the budget deficit should be reduced only by cutting spending; 76 percent say that higher taxes must play a role.

April 25: USC/Los Angeles Times poll of Californians found that by about a 2-to-1 margin voters favor raising taxes to deal with the state’s budget problems over cutting spending alone.

April 22: New York Times/CBS News poll found that 72 percent of people favor raising taxes on the rich to reduce the deficit. It also found that 66 percent of people believe tax increases will be necessary to reduce the deficit.

April 20: Washington Post/ABC News poll showed 72 percent of people favor raising taxes on the rich to reduce the deficit and it is far and away the most popular deficit reduction measure.

April 20: Public Religion Research Institute poll found that by a 2-to-1 margin, people believe that the wealthy should pay more taxes than the poor or middle class. Also, 62 percent of people believe that growing inequality of wealth is a serious problem.

April 18: McClatchy-Marist poll found that voters support higher taxes on the rich to reduce the deficit by a 2-to-1 margin, including 45 percent of self-identified Tea Party members.

April 18: Gallup poll found that 67 percent of people do not believe that corporations pay their fair share of taxes, and 59 percent believe that the rich do not pay their fair share.

April 1: Tulchin Research released a poll showing that voters in California overwhelmingly support higher taxes on the rich to deal with the state’s budgetary problems.

March 15: ABC News/Washington Post poll found that only 31 percent of voters support the Republican policy of only cutting spending to reduce the deficit; 64 percent believe higher taxes will also be necessary.

March 2: NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 81 percent of people would support a surtax on millionaires to help reduce the budget deficit, and 68 percent would support eliminating the Bush tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000.

February 15: a CBS News poll found a majority of Americans with incomes of $100,000 or more expect it will be necessary for them to pay higher taxes in order to lower the deficit.

:January 20: CBS News/New York Times poll, two-thirds of people would rather raise taxes than cut benefits for Social Security or Medicare. The poll also found that if taxes must be raised, 33 percent would favor a national sales tax, 32 percent would support restricting the mortgage interest deduction, 12 percent would raise the gasoline taxes, and 10 percent would tax health care benefits.

January 3: a 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll found that 61 percent of people would rather raise taxes on the rich to balance the budget than cut defense, Social Security or Medicare.

If the big money can sell lower taxes for the rich to the public by getting Republicans elected and to be proof positive that we live in an oligarchy.

I thought I'd add this from Robert Reich to further demonstrate the Republicans being out of touch.

The Fanatical GOP

TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2012

We’re witnessing the capture by fanatics of what was once a great and important American political party. 

The Republican Party platform committee now includes a provision calling for a constitutional amendment banning all abortions, without an exception for rape or incest. This is basically Missouri senatorial candidate Todd Akin’s position. (At least the GOP platform doesn’t assert that women’s bodies automatically reject “legitimate” rapists’ sperm.)

Paul Ryan, Romney’s selection for vice president, has co-sponsored 38 anti-abortion measures while in the House of Representatives, including several containing no exception for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

But the GOP’s fanaticism goes far beyond the its growing absolutism about abortion.

Ryan’s proposed budget, approved by almost all House Republicans, is also an exercise in fanaticism. It replaces Medicare with vouchers that won’t possibly keep up with rising healthcare costs — thereby shifting costs directly on to the elderly. 

That budget also harms the poor and rewards the rich, but does little or nothing to reduce the federal budget deficit. Over 60 percent of its spending cuts come out of programs for lower-income Americans. Its tax cuts for the rich reduce revenues by $4.6 trillion over the decade while saving the typical millionaire hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

The GOP’s looniness doesn’t even stop there. Republicans remain unwaivering in their support of state laws allowing or encouraging the profiling of Latinos. And unrelenting in their war against gay rights. 

It’s not just women, seniors, budget hawks, the poor, Latinos, and gays who are catching on to the Republicans’ extremism. Americans who don’t fall into one of these categories are becoming alarmed, too — as they should.

Although the GOP lurch to the right-wing margin of America may bode well for Democrats this coming Election Day, it bodes ill for America. The capture of one of our great parties by fanatics is nothing to celebrate. A democracy needs at least two sane political parties.