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Despite all the focus on the tea party movement, the Republican go-to strategy of tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts might not resonate as well in November as it has in past years. According to a new New York Times/CBS News poll, the vast majority, 62% of Americans, think the amount of income tax they paid this year was fair. Less than a third, 30%, think the amount they are paying is unfair. The result among the small group of Americans who identify as Tea Party members is very surprising:
Yet while some say the Tea Party stands for “Taxed Enough Already,” most Tea Party supporters – 52 percent – say their taxes are fair, the poll shows. Just under one in five Americans say they support the Tea Party movement.
However, those most active in the Tea Party are less satisfied with the amount of income taxes they will pay. Fifty-five percent of Tea Party activists – those who have attended a rally or donated money – (about 4 percent of Americans overall) say their income taxes are unfair.
Despite being depicted as an anti-tax movement, barely a majority of the most dedicated activists think they are personally paying too much in income taxes.
Looking at the AP-GfK poll, we see that while 67% of people think it is an extremely or very important issue, it falls below the economy, health care, unemployment, terrorism, the federal budget deficit, and energy, all of which had a greater percentage of people list them as extremely or very important issues. One poll even has the IRS with a higher favorable rating than both the Democratic and Republican Party.
Clearly, in this tough economy, with 10% unemployment, people seem to be more concerned about getting a steady paycheck than about how much of the paycheck is going toward taxes. With most people thinking that their taxes are fair and the majority of Americans actually having had their taxes go down since Obama took over, it might not be the best straight up campaign issue.
I know Republicans will run on taxes, because that is just what Republicans are, but to capitalize on it, they will probably need to spin tax cuts as somehow the best way to create jobs. Democrats, on the other hand, would be wise to depict Republicans’ inevitable call for tax cuts as a fiscally reckless move, unfit for the current economic problems, and likely to balloon the federal deficit even farther by helping the rich pay less in taxes. Either way, it is possible this election might be dominated by more serious concerns.
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The Teabaggers have never been about taxes nearly as much as they are about the color of the man they perceive as levying those taxes. And please, let’s not assist them in rehabilitating their image. “Tea Party” is far too kind a name for this rabble of racists and anarchists.
Hmm, yes, it’s a fine posture. It’s too bad the Democrats don’t just pass a massive jobs bill and run on, like….jobs. Or better yet, if only they had proposed the first spending bill be alot bigger, and have called it a “jobs” bill instead of a pinhead “stimulus” bill, and you know, actually made jobs not tax cuts, the emphasis of the bill. We’d have something substantial to run on.
And if that doesn’t get their attention, we’re screwed and tattooed
It will be about jobs.
The End.
Right. “Teabaggers” suggests an oral/scrotal obsession that needs to be repeated over and over.
Hey, they called themselves teabaggers until some 12 year old pointed out to them what it meant. I’m not going to help them clean up their image.
I found that really shocking.
Nitpicking:
I think you mean ‘reckless move’ here.
A ‘wreckless move’ would be something else – probably raising the marginal tax rate back to something that nails the super-rich.
I was just reading through the whole poll. What they really care about is deficit not taxes.
You really found that shocking? I didn’t.
They cry “tax” but really what they mean by “small government” is to give zip, zero, nada to the “unworthy” and lay-about louts who all happen to be not-White.
IMO, this is why it’s consistent in their worldview to “keep your hands off my medicare” and have low non-socialist taxes/policies.
The irony is they have no idea what a “deficit” is and that they had no problem when Bush single handedly doubled the entire accumulated debt for the history of the country in just eight short years. I don’t care what they say they care about. Unless one of the questions asked how they felt about a black man being president, it’s meaningless.
Oh, and if you are going to go a teabaggin’, please spell check your posters.
I don’t know about a 12 year old, but:
Are people really stupid enough to think tax cuts create jobs? Why did the economy lose tens of thousands of jobs and finally more than 700,000 jobs a month at the end of bushco?
The tea party idiots are screaming about government run healthcare and entitlements while they collect social security and have their government run medicare for health coverage. How does anyone take them seriously?
But isn’t Obama’s stimulus like 80% tax cuts?
Democrats would also be wise to include a few videos of crumbling bridges and other infrastructure, a few interviews with fired teachers, firemen, policemen & welfare workers, some statements from folks who have to do without these TAXPAYER FINANCED services.
Democrats have always been too spooked by the Republican “no taxes” meme, and just too chickenshit in general, to say [as Oliver Wendell Holmes did], “taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society.”
Every time I hear one of these libertarian creeps say “I made it myself; I don’t need government help,” or the general Republican line of “Taxes Are Evil,” I want to ask,
“did you drive on a highway today? Who do you think paid for it?”
“have you taken a plane flight lately? How do those air traffic controllers get paid?
“drunk any clean water, or breathed any non-polluted air? How did that happen?
“been to a doctor lately, or plan to go to one? Who paid for the medical school he/she went to?
And on and on.
If Dems weren’t such stupid shits, they’d start an “education campaign” about what taxes fund, and the hole we’re in because of all the tax cuts.
In almost all states, all folks have to do is look around to see the devastation caused by lack of funding. [Here in Hawaii, our schools are closed on Fridays, and our libraries are closed as well. Over half of the workers who process welfare claims have been fired.]
Dems should step up and say, “there are TWO sides to a budget equation. It’s not just cut, cut, cut. Governments need to raise revenue to pay for essential things. There’s nothing wrong with taxes that are levied fairly and spent wisely. You can see the result of the alternatives.”
Dunno about the 80 percent part but yeah, there’s a reason it hasn’t created a lot of jobs.
If it weren’t for the liberal media the teaparty wld be forgotten by now. The only reason they are relevant is bcz the liberal media is obsessed with them. You guys are making Sarah rich as hell.
Why is the media so focused on the “tea-party”? Is it like a shiny object…”look over here” but not at what is really important? Is it intentionally trying to create an even angrier citizenry for ratings? Why can’t we have discussions of each issue in this country on the merits of the issue instead of focusing on the irrelevant side issues. I say irrelevant, because in the long term, will the “tea party” make the difference in how this country deals with unemployment, health care, and other issues except as a distraction. Four years from now, when we are discussing the health care mandates going into effect, will we ignore the issue and still be talking about the tea party?
It is time for citizens to make it known to the main stream media that we want news on the issues. I wonder what type of health care reform we could have had if the media focused on actual parts of the bill with explanations instead of on what people who were “clueless” thought it was about. Maybe we could have had a real “adult” discussion then on single payer systems.
As for taxes, I think a majority of people understand the basic concept of taxes, why we pay them, and the good it does for our society as a whole. Where is that story? P.S. to Jon Walker… I appreciate that you pointed out other issues.
The right wing noise machine is setting the emotional climate to make murder and ultimately genocide possible in the U.S.
it’s so obvious that democrats will lose in november because of the healthcare bill so they don’t need to bring tax cuts into the conversation. jobs are the biggest issue and dems ignored it and dems knew it but still went with their partisan (death to them)heathcare vote. joe republican can just say he’s against the healthcare bill and not say anything else and win election this november.
Which media outlets do you consider to be Liberal?
Spot on, Jon. Taxes might not be the most imporatant issue.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/04/14/maliki-aides-claim-sadr-alliance-to-be-announced-soon/
If Maliki and Sadr cut a deal to keep Maliki in power, as this piece suggests:
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/04/14/maliki-aides-claim-sadr-alliance-to-be-announced-soon/
it’s going to piss off a lot of Sunnis who saw in Allawi (The former CIA employee…) a chance to increase their influence in the government of what used to be Iraq. If that happens, it’s going to cost Obama (and us) a lot more than the original bushCo splurge payoffs, to keep those purple fingers out of the trigger guards of AK-47′s and RPG’s, while he makes substantial drawdowns. IF he does. And even that might not do it.
This entire political situation is starting to look like a surfing scenario, when you’re sitting outside at some break on the North Shore of Oahu, waiting for a big set…and then, you see the horizon start to get lumpy and uneven, as one comes in, only, riding THIS wave is going to be not a lot of fun, especially, if you’re a progressive democrat who enthusiastically voted for Obama and then watched him turn into just another political hack.
Whatever the biggest issue is, I don’t think it’s one that Obama and the dems can use to even keep their mid-term losses to what might be called “moderate”. I think it could be one of the biggest political reverses we’ve ever seen in amurka…and really, Obama and the dems will have no one to blame but themselves. They came into office with the biggest mandate for change, and some of the largest congressional margins to effect it, since Franklin Roosevelt, and they have essentially squandered them by insisting on “reaching out” to the people who spent 8 years nearly ruining us. It was never a possibility that they would assist Obama in mounting some kind of salvage operation, no matter that it was as half-assed and protective of the health-insurance robber barons as the healthcare “reform” bill that had some progressive bloggers practically dancing naked at O.’s “big win”. That was, or course, nonsense. Last year, the health insurance industry made $275 billion in profits. When the new 30 million customers that Obama gave them kick in, they will make even more.
The tea baggers are just the activist portion of the 30% mouth-breathing wing of the party. They were a given, whether or not Obama really tried to effect meaningful change in the country. His problem is not them; it’s the elderly democrats and independents who helped he and the dems more than double John McCain and the GOP, 365 to 173, in electoral votes. Most of those people would no more take part in a tea party than they’d show up in front of the Lincoln Memorial, buckass naked.
And a hell of a lot of them don’t even like the HCR bill that was passed.
As has been speculated on here, and on other progressive blogs, it may be that Obama and the democrats will secretly welcome a shellacking in November. It will relieve them of the responsibility for making the changes that we so desperately need. And THAT, as anyone with two synapses to rub together, knows, has been a terrible burden on them.
“With corporate tax receipts at 20-year low, the GAO takes a look through the books and finds 94% of all U.S. companies paid less than 5% — and 61% paid nothing at all.” http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P80242.asp
“Two-Thirds of Corporations Pay No Taxes, But McCain Still Wants To Lower the Corporate Tax Rate
A cornerstone of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) economic plan — Jobs for America — is cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent, which McCain claims will turn America into a “low-tax business environment.” But as it turns out, even with the rate at 35 percent, most corporations are not paying taxes.” http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2008/08/12/no-corporate-taxes/
Capital gains are tax at a lower rate than wages.
“About 25 percent of the U.S. corporations not paying corporate taxes were considered large corporations, meaning they had at least $250 million in assets or $50 million in receipts.” http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/12/national/main4342535.shtml
“Some of the world’s biggest, most profitable corporations enjoy a far lower tax rate than you do–that is, if they pay taxes at all.
The most egregious example is General Electric ( GE – news – people ). Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit
Avoiding taxes is nothing new for General Electric. In 2008 its effective tax rate was 5.3%; in 2007 it was 15%. The marginal U.S. corporate rate is 35%. http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/01/ge-exxon-walmart-business-washington-corporate-taxes.html
“CAYMAN ISLANDS – Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation’s top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven.” “With an estimated $16 billion in contracts, KBR is by far the largest contractor in Iraq, with eight times the work of its nearest competitor.” http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2008/03/06/top_iraq_contractor_skirts_us_taxes_offshore/ Note these contracts are funded with TAXPAYER DOLLARS
Federal revenue sources chart. http://www.publicagenda.org/charts/federal-budget-revenue-sources
I don’t care about the fortunes of either party, or their political strategies. I’m votin green.