In the most positive assessment since Gallup started polling the question in 1956, 48% of Americans now say the amount of federal income tax they pay is “about right,” while 46% say it is “too high,” marking a dramatic shift from the historic norm.
On the macro level, this shift in opinion should serve as a warning to Republicans who have long relied on cutting taxes as the central theme of their political campaigns. But on the local level, I hope it prompts Democrats in Olympia, and their various constituent groups, to reevaluate the conventional group-think that insists an income tax is a non-starter for Washington voters.
Yeah, I know, I know… a broad personal income tax got trounced at the polls the last time it was on the ballot back in 1973, and an off-off election year is typically the worst time to put a progressive measure before voters who will surely skew to the right. But this isn’t 1973, and in the midst of the Great Recession and an extended Obama honeymoon, we may be passing up a once in a generation opportunity to enact real reform.
Voters are in a mood. They’re anxious about the economy and angry at the fat cats on Wall Street who led us into this crisis, which may help explain why a high-earners income tax is polling just about even with a third of cent increase in the sales tax. Obama campaigned on raising taxes on households earning over $250,000 a year, and he won by a wide margin here in WA state, so why wouldn’t WA voters support the same locally? Well, given the right package, the right reasons and an effective communications campaign, they might. I’m not saying a high-earners income tax measure is a sure thing, but for the first time in a long time, neither is its failure.
So the next time someone points to 1973 as evidence of political futility, I say point to this Gallup chart illustrating the dramatic shift in national attitudes over the past 36 years, and ask the question: are Washington voters really all that different from the rest of the nation? Personally, I don’t think so.
Republicans are demagoguing the tax issue. They promise people lower taxes, but what they actually stand for is shifting the tax burden from the rich to the working class. Voters are figuring it out, and many aren’t fooled anymore. It was inevitable the GOP’s deception would eventually catch up with them. As P. T. Barnum said, you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
remember….over 35 percent of the filers pay not income tax at all. Zero, 0, Zilch…so if you ask them…sure they say it’s the right amount. That percentage has increased over time so that fits with the numbers you quote.
But I would in no way use this as an indication that people are willing to support income tax in WA. Replacement for sales tax…maybe…but knowing Olympia, it would be additional to sales tax…aka major tax hike.
Get rid of the sales tax completely and replace it with a progressive income tax and I’ll strongly support it.
Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Lowest Index since Inauguration when it was +32.
Go ahead & push high taxes using highly unreliable Gallup.
Class Warfare Goldy is not the answer.
You ZERO-SUM Economic KLOWNS need to wise up and grow up and focus on increasing the pie..not redistribting.
A little context is in order here.
First, the bottom 50% of tax filers, don’t pay any income tax. So if this is a representative sample of the American tax payer, 50% of them don’t pay any federal income taxes. They aren’t feeling any tax pain, so why not tax more? Sounds great when not paying any….
Additionally, the top 25% of tax payers pay 86% of all federal income taxes.
Go back to the poll. Easy now to see how a MAJORITY of those polled might feel OK with how much they are currently paying, when 75% of all tax filers pay only 14% of the federal taxes….
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/06in05tr.xls
The federal income tax system is already a massive redistribution of individual earnings….
It is an interesting chart showing that for the past eight years or so that about half the people polled think that their taxes are too high and the other half of the poll participants think their taxes are about right. (and three percent think their taxes are too low – hmmmm… who fits in that category?)
Goldy, I don’t see your logic that those poll participants want their taxes raised again… In fact it would appear that if taxes were lowered even more then more folks would agree that their taxes were about right.
Pres. George HW Bush prior to his election: “Read my lips. No new taxes.”
Pres. George HW Bush post election: “I said no new taxes. I didn’t say I wouldn’t raise the old ones.”
Republicans have been working a long, long time to destroy their credibility. It’s the only thing they’ve succeeded at.
You guys just don’t get it. It’s not about whether taxes really are too high or too low, or who pays them. It’s about perception.
What’s important to look at here is the trend. This chart shows the most positive attitude toward the income tax in 60 years. Those hoping to eventually implement an income tax here in WA state could say “oh… it’s just not positive enough,” to which I ask, when is it ever going to get any better?
re 5: “Additionally, the top 25% of tax payers pay 86% of all federal income taxes.”
Bonuses are taxed at a lower rate. than income. Capital gains are taxed at a lower rate. The weathy who nominally have ‘jobs’ pay themselves a dummy salary for tax purposes and claim the other income as capital gains, business ‘expenses’ (e.g., private airplanes,) tax free minicipal bonds, and, of course, the bonuses we’ve all come to know.
The fact that their ‘incomes’ account for 86% of INCOME TAXES collected should be a cause of alarm to you at the concentration of wealth in a very small amount of hands.
But you see only an excuse to solidify rteir power even more by granting themever larger tax breaks.
You do know, I’m assuming, that Gibbons attributed the concentration of wealth in a few hands as one of the prime reasons Rome fell? Soldiers do not eagarly defend or expand something for which they have no stake in and hired goons turn on their masters every time.
Hmmmm… Taxes were lowered about eight years ago so more folks think their income tax payments are about right (up from 28% to 48%). The chart does not show a perception that anyone likes to pay taxes. It does show that as taxes were lowered more folks were happy about that.
Now I do like Blue John’s response that if sales taxes were deleted and replaced by income taxes, that would be OK so long as the rates of the income taxes have to be approved by the voters and that the money collected doesn’t exceed the taxes currently collected to start off with. (even-steven)
re 10: “…folks.”???? Your’e not talking about the Clampett’s, are you? How reductive can one person get?
It is the opinion of the doctors, lawyers teachers, union workers, and lots of other informed people that the taxes they are paying are OK, but that the people at the top should pay more.
Some ‘folks’ still think the taxation istoo high. But they usually are first in line for government handouts.
Shows why the douche bags on the right will fail with this stupid tea bag thing. They have no ideas. They hope for America to fail. They simply want to whine and moan and that’s why we KICKED THIER ASS!
Stoner’s thoughtful macro-level warning to Republicans, re tax cuts, is absurd because Republican macro tax cuts made income taxes palatable:
Here’s the context for taxation’s reversal of (mis)fortune … going from tax-toxic to positive: if taxpayers, by unprecedented proportions, are now high on income taxes, it’s because they aren’t paying income taxes. Thanks to Bush.
Thanks to Stoner, as usual, for reminding us what horseshit from the HorsesAss smells like.
See y’all at Westlake, tomorrow afternoon, where we’ll be taking tea. Mr. Goldstein is cordially invited to attend. Perhaps he’ll learn something, but probably not.
Puddybud – I’m feeling left out.
http://horsesass.org/?p=14999#comment-912045
re 13: What makes the people knocked off the tax rolls a significat number?
What is a 3% tax cut to a family that brings in $40,000 yearly as opposed to one that brings in $400,000.
It’s the difference between $1,200 and 12,000. When you multiply these types of savings by the population that is affected, you can see why an advantage is built into these things that tilts toward the well heeled.
How about if eveyone got the same $1,200 in tax relief. How would that not be fair?
Goldy, so this poll shows that people are happy with the tax rates Bush and the GOP Congress gave us. The ones Democrats have been saying for years they want to roll back, and which Obama has vowed to roll back in part, and which you personally want to increase at the state level.
Look at where this trend toward satisfaction began: after Bush took office, it went up dramatically.
And this is a warning to *Republicans*?
Wow.
What this tells us is that an increase in taxes will increase dissatisfaction.
Goldy:
What’s important to look at here is the trend. This chart shows the most positive attitude toward the income tax in 60 years.
Oh, I see your confusion. In fact, the chart shows no such thing. It shows positive attitude toward the CURRENT LEVEL of taxation, not toward income taxes themselves.
I might say “yes” if asked if I am satisfied with the current level of income taxation — I think it is too high, but I realize it’s not getting any lower any time soon — but if given the chance, I would repeal the 16th Amendment tomorrow.
This means that new or increased income taxes as you desire will, most likely, be greeted with increased dissatisfaction.
So now help me out Pudge – if the CURRENT tax rates are the ones Bush gave us, why are all you right wing cowards out there protesting THE CURRENT TAX RATES with your bullshit Teabag parties?
You have to really admire the right’s ability to completely ignore all facts when swimming toward the waterfall that will THANKFULLY eventually take their lives.
re 19: Good point. But the hilarity created by self-described Republican teabaggers can never be equaled — unless they somehow decide to take to the streets as shrimpers.
@19: I was in Olympia yesterday. Among the 5,000 people I saw not ONE person protesting the current tax rates, except for people who said they were against the income tax altogether.
Poor attempt at a straw man there.