Majority of Americans Say Tax the Rich to Balance Budget

By
Gabriel Caplett
– 01/04/2011

While politicians recently extended the “Bush tax cuts” to the wealthy, which will actually raise taxes for some lower income Americans, a recent CBS/Vanity Fair poll shows the vast majority of Americans support increasing taxes on the wealthy, with only 3% suggesting cutting Social Security costs, in order to balance the federal budget.  The vast majority of the $900 billion cost (over two years) will go toward extending tax cuts to Americans making more than $1 million a year.

Over 60% of Americans say the federal budget can be balanced by raising taxes on the wealthy; only 3% said Social Security should be cut; CBS/Vanity Fair

From CBS:

A survey from CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and Vanity Fair magazine shows that most Americans, given a set limited choices for balancing the national budget, would prefer to see taxes increased for the wealthy.

As many as 61 percent said they would prefer increasing taxes on the rich over three other options: cutting defense spending, cutting Medicare or cutting Social Security. Another 20 percent chose cutting defense spending as the best option. Just 4 percent said they would cut Medicare, and just 3 percent said they would cut Social Security.

Perhaps not surprisingly, those with higher incomes were less inclined to say increasing taxes on the wealthy would be the best option. Nevertheless, as many as 46 percent of Americans making more than $100,000 said it was the best option — 26 points higher than the next-preferred option, cutting defense spending.

This post was written by

Gabriel Caplett – who has written 106 posts on Headwaters - Community Journalism for the Great Lakes.

Gabriel Caplett is a writer and market farmer from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

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