Thread: 54% Favor Middle Class Tax Cuts Over New Health Care Spendin

54% Favor Middle Class Tax Cuts Over New Health Care Spending

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say tax cuts for the middle class are more important than new spending for health care reform, even as President Obama’s top economic advisers signal that tax hikes may be necessary.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken Monday and Tuesday nights, finds that 34% disagree and say new spending for health care reform is more important. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.

It is important to note that this question asked about new government spending on health care rather than health care reform.

The partisan and ideological divide on the question is sizable. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats say new spending for health care reform is the priority. But 80% of Republicans and 62% of voters not affiliated with either party favor tax cuts for the middle class.

Seventy percent (70%) of liberals say new spending is more important, while 76% of conservatives prefer tax cuts.

Recent polling shows that 48% of voters now rate the U.S. health care system as good or excellent. That figure has increased significantly since the Congressional debate on health care began.

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Seventy-six percent (76%) of all voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that taxes will have to be raised on the middle class to cover the cost of health care reform. Fifty-nine percent (59%) say it is very likely.

Just 18% say middle class tax hikes are not likely, with 14% who say they’re not very likely and four percent (4%) who think they are not at all likely.

These numbers are largely unchanged from a survey in mid-July. But on Sunday Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, both refused to rule out the possibility of middle-class tax increases to pay for the health care reform plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats.

Voters ages 18 to 29 are evenly divided over which is more important – tax cuts or new spending on health care reform – while those in all other age groups overwhelmingly prefer cutting taxes for the middle class. This younger age group also is by far the one that least expects a middle class tax hike to pay for health care reform.

While 88% of Republicans and 67% of unaffiliated voters say middle-class tax hikes are very likely, just 29% of Democrats agree.

Only 15% of voters nationwide now say Obama has cut taxes for 95% of Americans as he repeatedly promised to do on the campaign trail, down 11 points from early June. Forty-nine percent (49%) say the president has not cut taxes for most Americans, and 36% are not sure.

Democrats are far less skeptical about this than Republican voters and unaffiliateds.

Forty-one percent (41%) of voters now expect their personal taxes to go up under the Obama administration. Eleven percent (11%) say they will go down, and 34% think they will stay the same.
Just 16% of voters believe that tax increases help the economy. Most voters (54%) say tax increases hurt the economy, a number that has been fairly consistent for more than a decade.

Only 28% say they are willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans can have health insurance. Sixty percent (60%) are opposed. Those figures are little changed since May.
Recent polling has shown that cost, not universal coverage, is the top concern about health care.

Americans are fairly evenly divided on the health care reform proposals working their way through Congress, but most remain convinced that the plans will raise costs and hurt the quality of the care they receive.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_ ... e_spending

I don't want higher taxes or gov't health care.

Originally Posted by ELE

I don't want higher taxes or gov't health care.

I too am a Libertarian.