July 1, 2008

What's Fair is Fair, Part 2

In my immediate previous post we discussed the proposition that a "fair" tax code is one that does not redistribute income.

I think it is a definition most Americans would agree with - and there's new polling data that suggests as much.

The vast majority of the American people, according to a recent Gallup poll, believe government should NOT redistribute income in order to "fix" the economy, but instead ought to focus on creating conditions for a healthy economy. Even the least well-off Americans overwhelmingly disfavor income redistribution:

90 percent of Republicans, 85 percent of the Independents and 77 percent of the Democrats all believe the government should focus on overall economy versus redistributing wealth. When broken down by income levels the same sentiment is felt throughout them all, with 78 percent of those making less than $30,000 believing that the government should also focus on fixing the overall economic conditions and the jobs instead of trying to redistribute the wealth, followed by by 83 percent of those making $30,000 to $75,000 believing the same thing and 88 percent of those making $75,000 or more agree.

That answer differs when the "abstract" question of "should the wealthy pay more taxes" is asked showing that when given a choice of remedies, Americans favor that the government focus on fixing the problems and not taking from one group to give to another.

Half of Americans also feel the government does too much, not too little.

50 percent of Americans believe the government does too many things that should be left to individuals or businesses while 43 percent believe the government should do more.

The question was also broken down by political party lines showing that 72 percent of Republicans believe the government does too much while 24 percent think the government does not do enough, 47 percent of Independents believe the government oversteps while 44 percent believe they should do more and the Democrats are the one group that feel, by 58 percent to 36 percent, that the government does not do enough.

Ben Cunningham calls the Gallup poll results "encouraging".

And while we're on the subject of polls, there was another poll out Tuesday, this one from Rasmussen, which found that 57 percent of likely voters believe voter approval should be required for all tax increases. 30 percent disagreed and 14 percent were unsure.

Rasmussen also found at that a majority of likely voters do not believe the U.S. government needs more tax revenue:

In the latest survey, 47% of Democrats say new tax revenues are needed while only 17% of Republicans agree. A whopping 73% of GOP voters say more taxes are not needed and 34% of Democrats agree with them. Fifty-six percent (56%) of unaffiliated voters say the government does not need more tax revenue, but 32% disagree.