Throughout the 2008 campaign, President Obama repeatedly stated that he would not extend the Bush tax cuts for Americans making more than $250,000 a year. Now, in the wake of Obama’s announcement of a deal with Republicans to extend those very tax cuts for another two years, he’s taking some heat.
As Greg Sargent reports, a SurveyUSA poll of voters who contributed time or money to Obama’s campaign found that a vast majority oppose extending tax cuts for the nation’s top earners, even if it comes as part of a deal with Republicans. Eighty-three percent of the surveyed Obama backers said they were opposed — 70% of them strongly — to extending the tax cuts for people making over $250,000 a year, with 74% opposing a Republican compromise that would result in an extension of those cuts.
In addition, 51% of the respondents said they would be less likely to contribute to Obama’s reelection campaign if he struck such a deal, while 57% said they would be less favorable toward Democrats who back the compromise.
The tax deal currently being mulled would extend the Bush tax cuts on all Americans, regardless of income, for two years in exchange for a 13-month extension of unemployment benefits, among other things. Congressional Democrats have hardly embraced the proposal, with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer saying this morning that a top bracket tax cut extension “is not appropriate,” and that the compromise could still change.
The poll, commissioned by MoveOn, surveyed 1,132 voters in twenty states who donated to or campaigned for Obama in the 2008 presidential election. It was conducted December 6.
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