I mentioned on Friday that “the only congressional Democrats who understand the message of 2010 are the ones currently cleaning out their offices.”
Pollster Glen Bolger sends along these results:
There is strong support for keeping the current tax rates/extending the tax cuts instead of raising taxes/letting the tax cuts expire.Throughout the survey, we split sampled language on the issue. Half of the respondents (N=500) heard many questions that asked about plans to “extend the tax cuts or letting the tax cuts expire” while the other half heard many questions that juxtaposed a choice of“keep current tax rates or raise taxes.” Generally, the “keep current tax rates” language tested better than the “extend the tax cuts” language. Overall, 65% support extending the tax cuts, while 29% prefer to let the tax cuts expire. A stronger 83% would vote to keep current tax rates, while 14% would vote to raise taxes.
I know some pollsters have shown better results for the Democrats with different wording. But as I mentioned Friday, few surviving Democrats on the Hill will voluntarily contemplate the notion that the American people have decided the problem is not that they’re undertaxed but that Congress overspends. The Democrats look at our high unemployment, lousy growth rate, and dismal long-term financial outlook and prefer to conclude that the problem is “out there,” where all those greedy taxpayers live, instead a little bit closer to themselves.