Americans Support Tax Hikes (on the rich)

U.S. News
Poll: Most favor taxing rich as budget fix
Published: Jan. 3, 2011 at 2:50 PM

NEW YORK, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Raising taxes on high-end U.S. taxpayers should be the first step taken in balancing the federal budget, a CBS "60 Minutes"/Vanity Fair poll Monday indicated.

Sixty-one percent of Americans said they thought increasing taxes on the wealthy should be the first thing done to help bring the budget into balance, while 20 percent said they preferred cuts to Pentagon spending as their first option, The Hill reported.

Four percent said cutting Medicare would be the best way to begin to cut the deficit while 3 percent of participants said they preferred cutting Social Security.

Raising taxes for the wealthy was popular among the wealthy themselves, the poll revealed. Fifty-eight percent of respondents making between $50,000 and $100,000 per year ranked tax hikes as the best first step to balancing the budget, while 46 percent of people earning more than $100,000 said it was their top choice.

Results are based on nationwide interviews with 1,137 adults Nov. 29-Dec. 2. It has a 3 percentage point margin of error.