By a two-to-one margin, the public views President Barack Obama’s call to raise taxes on high-income earners as good for the economy, a new poll released Monday shows.
According to the latest survey from Pew Research Center, 44 percent believe that raising taxes on income above $250,000 would help the economy, while 22 percent say it would hurt the economy. The same percentage — 44 — says such a tax increase would make the current tax system more fair.
It’s little surprise that strong majorities of Democrats support Obama’s proposal and believe that it would make the tax system more equitable, but Republicans are not as virulently opposed as one might assume. Forty-one percent of Republicans say that it would hurt the economy — compared with 27 percent who believe it would help — but 24 percent say it would make no difference. And while 36 percent of Republicans believe the proposal would make the tax system less fair, 30 percent say it would make no difference at all and 25 percent say it would make the system more fair.
