Above all else, Americans are hoping for the lame-duck Congress to sort out some tax issues, according to a newly released USA Today/Gallup poll.
The latest survey asked respondents to rate the importance of six different issues that are being considered by Congress during its lame-duck session. The issues were:
- The Bush tax cuts
- Unemployment benefits
- The START treaty
- Legal status for illegal immigrants
- Allowing openly gay men and women in the military
- The estate tax
Of those issues, the survey found Americans are most concerned with the estate tax, as 56% of respondents indicated that it was “very important” for the lame-duck Congress to pass legislation that would keep the tax “from increasing significantly next year.”
Respondents ranked “extending some form of the federal income tax cuts passed under George W. Bush” as the second most important issue for the lame-duck Congress, with 50% suggesting it was a very important issue. The extension of unemployment benefits was ranked as the third most important issue, as 48% of respondents deemed it a very important issue for Congress to act on.
Addressing non-economic issues in a timely fashion appears to be less important to Americans, according to the findings. Forty percent of respondents stressed the importance of ratifying the START treaty with Russia, which the Obama administration is keen on passing during this lame-duck session. Only 32% believe the issue of gays in the military is a very important issue to address before year’s end, and 31% of respondents see “passing legislation that would allow illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children to gain legal residence status if they join the military or go to college” as an important issue of a timely nature.
While these findings are considerably more narrow than a number of recent polls asking respondents about their priorities for the new Congress, this survey specifically asks about action to be taken during the lame-duck session. Other polls asking about congressional priorities have shown much less interest in the estate tax, for instance.
Unsurprisingly, there is a great partisan split in the findings. While close to 70% of Republicans say extending the Bush tax cuts and preventing the return of the estate tax is very important, only half as many rate any other issue as very important. On the flip side, Democrats easily rank extending unemployment rates as their top priority to be addressed during this lame-duck session (68% says it very important), while 50% stress the importance of ratifying the START treaty and 48% express a need for Congress to act on allowing gays to openly serve in the military.
The pollster concludes that “there does appear to be consensus among both parties in Congress to extend unemployment benefits and to extend the income tax cuts, though currently not enough agreement on the details of how to accomplish these.”
The margin of error for the survey is ±4.0 percentage points.
