Tax Lawyer's Blog

From Paul Caron:

The Hill, Hill Poll: Likely Voters Prefer Lower Individual, Business Tax Rates:

Three-quarters of likely voters believe the nation’s top earners should pay lower, not higher, tax rates, according to a new poll for The Hill.

The big majority opted for a lower tax bill when asked to choose specific rates; precisely 75% said the right level for top  earners was 30% or below.

The current rate for top earners  is 35%. Only 4% thought it was appropriate to take 40%, which is approximately the level that President Obama is seeking from January 2013 onward.

The Hill Poll also found that 73% of likely voters believe  corporations should pay a lower rate than the current 35%, as  both the White House and Republicans push plans to lower rates.

The  new data seem to run counter to several polls that have found support for raising taxes on high-income earners. In an Associated Press-GfK  poll released Friday, 65% said they favored President Obama’s  “Buffett Rule” that millionaires should pay at least 30% of their  income. And a Pew poll conducted in June found 66% of adults  favored raising taxes on those making more than $250,000 as a way to tackle the deficit.

But The Hill poll found that a dramatically  different picture emerges when voters are asked to specify the “most  appropriate” rates. … The data could indicate a challenge to Obama’s push to increase taxes on the wealthy. …

Republicans were more likely than Democrats to support lower tax rates for the wealthy, but voters in both parties solidly supported lower rates  compared to current law. Eighty-one percent of Republicans favored tax  rates below current levels, compared to 70% of Democrats.

Pro-tax liberals have said for years that because the overwhelming majority of Americans support higher taxes on the rich, Congress should respect the will of the majority and raise taxes on the rich. But now that we find that the majority actually favors lower taxes on the rich, the left will do an about face and hold meaningless the will of the majority on the grounds that the majority has either been duped by the rich and greedy or are just stupid as a box of rocks.

Always remember this rule of radical leftists: Majority rule is a valuable construct only so long as we are part of the majority. When the majority favors a policy with which we disagree – gay marriage in California, for example – we must demean and defame the majority in order to,

1. discredit it;
2. intimidate others from remaining with it; and
3. intimidate others from joining it.

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