Americans Favor Tax Hikes on Wealthy to Reduce Nation's Debt
Linda Young

New York, NY, United States (AHN) A new CNN / ORC International Poll finds that the majority of Americans think it would be a good idea to put higher taxes on the wealthy to help the nation dig out of its massive debt problem.

Among the questions respondents were asked was to state which of three statements came closest to their view. The statements were given in no particular order.

Those statements and the percentage of respondents who said they were closest to their view were:

1. Taxes on wealthy people should be kept low because they invest their money in the private sector and that helps the economy and creates jobs. 34%

2. Taxes on wealthy people should be kept high so the government can use their money for programs to help lower-income people. 62%

3. No opinion 5%

The vast majority of Americans would not be affected by higher taxes on the wealthy.

The bottom 90 percent of all Americans earn $100,000 or less, with about half of those earning $50,000 or less and the majority of those earning $30,000 or less.

Only the top 10 percent of all Americans earn more than $100,000 and even the vast majority of that 10 percent would not be affected by President Barack Obama's plan for raising taxes on the wealthy

Obama has specifically called for raising taxes only on people who earn $200,000 or more.

A mere 3 percent of Americans earn $200,000 or more. So raising taxes on the wealthy would mean no tax increases for the other 97 percent of Americans.

Other results from the poll found that 57 percent of respondents favored cutting domestic spending to help reduce the deficit. However, nearly 66 percent were opposed to cuts in Social Security or Medicare while 53 percent opposed cuts to the Pentagon.

Moreover, although 62 percent of respondents favored tax increases on the rich, 90 percent said they opposed tax hikes on middle income and lower income workers.

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