Most registered voters back President Trump’s initial tax reform plan, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday.
Fifty-nine percent of voters polled said they would support the plan outlined by the Trump administration, compared to just 20 percent of voters who said they would oppose the plan.
Trump wants to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, and to shrink the number of individual tax brackets from 7 down to 3 tiers at 12 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent. Other features of the plan voters indicated they would support include a one-time repatriation tax for income held overseas, and a repeal of the estate tax.
Voters showed the most support for the provision of the plan that raises the standard deduction that citizens can claim on their tax returns from $12,000 to $24,000. Sixty-two percent of voters want this feature in the final tax reform proposal.
The respondents do not want to see U.S. companies evade taxes overseas, and are still unsure about cutting the corporate interest rate. Roughly 39 percent of voters think the corporate interest rate should be lower, while 38 percent oppose a substantial cut.
Trump and Clinton voters are split over whether or not high-income Americans will pay more in taxes under the administration’s reform proposal. Thirty-six percent of Trump voters say wealthy Americans will pay more, while only 22 percent of Clinton voters believe that proposition. The majority of Clinton voters (57 percent) think wealthy Americans will pay less in taxes if Congress approves the plan. Only 27 percent of Trump voters agree.
The Morning Consult/Politico poll was conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, 2017 and sampled 1,992 registered voters. Pollsters interviewed voters online and weighted the date to approximate a target sample of registered voters based on age, race/ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, and region. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Tax reform appears at the surface to have the most bipartisan support of any legislative push from the administration in Trump’s first 9 months in office. After nearly a handful of failed attempts at getting an Obamacare repeal bill through the Senate, Trump and congressional leadership are looking to score a win before the legislative clock runs out on 2017.
At least three Democratic senators and eight House members are actively engaged in ongoing negotiations with Trump and members of his administration to accomplish the first major legislative achievement of the president’s first term in office.
While some Democrats are already working with the president, a coalition of roughly 45 Democrats in the Senate, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, could give the administration trouble going forward. This group has promised to reject any bill that cuts taxes on the wealthy.
The caucus of Senate Democrats sent a letter to Trump and Republican leadership in August in which they wrote, “tax reform cannot be a cover story for delivering tax cuts to the wealthiest … We will not support any tax plan that includes tax cuts for the top 1 percent.”
While on the surface it would appear the top tax bracket receives a cut under the Trump plan, the proposal does include a caveat that the final plan could include a 4th rate on the highest income households.
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