Economix Blog: Americans Used to Be Much More Anti-Tax

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

In addition to his Economix post, Bruce Bartlett also has a Tax Notes column today looking at public support for raising taxes (instead of or in addition to cutting spending)  to narrow federal deficits. He found dozens of surveys conducted over the last year showing that most Americans believe that taxes should be part of any deficit reduction package.

Incidentally, for an article (and related blog post) I wrote a while back on the evolution of deficit deals, I asked The Times’s polling department to see how American attitudes toward debt consolidation packages had changed in the last three decades. They pulled up the polls below.

As you’ll see, Congressional Republicans may have become more anti-tax in the last 30 years, but the American public has made the opposite transition: in March 1982, three-quarters of Americans said spending cuts alone should be used to reduce deficits; today, about the same share say tax increases should be included in any debt-reduction package. Remember, of course, that tax rates were much higher 30 years ago than they are today.

NBC News/Associated Press Poll, March 1982
In order to help reduce the federal budget deficit, which of the following would you prefer — federal income tax increases or federal spending cuts?

13% Tax increases
77% Spending cuts
4% Both (volunteered)
6 % Don’t know

Time/Yankelovich, Skelly White Poll, November 1985
What do you think should be done to reduce the federal deficit? Do you think we should: cut government spending, raise taxes, or both cut our spending and raise taxes?

54% Cut government spending
4% Raise taxes
36% Both cut our spending and raise taxes
6% Not sure (volunteered)

Gallup, May 1988
There are a number of ways to reduce the federal budget deficit, if the government decides to. Some people say we can reduce the deficit simply by cutting spending. Others say a combination of spending cuts and tax increases is required. Which of these views comes closer to your own?

47% Cutting spending
39% Combination of spending cuts and tax increases
2% Do neither (volunteered)
12% Don’t know/Undecided

Quinnipiac University Poll, March 2010
To reduce the federal budget deficit do you think there should be a combination of tax increases and spending cuts, or that only taxes should be raised, or only that spending should be cut?

42% Combination
4% Only tax increases
49% Only spending cuts
5% Don’t know/No answer

New York Times/CBS News, September 2011
Do you think any plan to reduce the federal budget deficit should include only tax increases, or only spending cuts, or a combination of both tax increases and spending cuts?

3% Only tax increases
21% Only spending cuts
71% Both
5% Don’t know/No answer

Time/Abt SRBI Poll, October 2011
Over all, what do you think is the best way to reduce the federal budget deficit — by cutting federal spending, by raising taxes, or by a combination of both?

29% Cutting federal spending
4% Increasing taxes
65% Combination
3% No answer/Don’t know

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=35c3750de604145aa4836e101e88ff6c