Public Opposes Trump's Plan To Cut Taxes For The Rich

Tomorrow is the last day to file federal income taxes, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about Donald Trump's plan to cut taxes for corporations and the rich -- a plan that Republicans in Congress also seem to strongly favor. Is this something the American public would like to be done?

There is growing evidence that the public would oppose tax cuts for the wealthy (and corporations). The charts above show that.

The top chart is from a new survey by the Pew Research Center -- done between April 5th and 11th of a random national sample of 1,501 adults, with a margin of error of 2.9 points. It shows that 80% of the public is bothered that corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes -- and 62% say it bothers them a lot. A similar 78% say they are bothered by the wealthy class not paying their fair share -- and 60% say it bothers them a lot.

The second chart is from a recent Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between March 30th and April 3rd of a random national sample of 1,171 voters, with a margin of error of 2.9 points. It shows that 72% of the public would oppose new tax cuts for the rich, while only 21% would support those cuts. And that feeling spans both genders, all age groups, all racial groups, and all political groups (including a 48% plurality of the Republican base).

Trump is trying to sell the proposed tax cuts for the corporations and the rich as a job creation program -- even though taxes have been shown to have nothing to do with job creation or job losses. That's going to be a hard sell to the huge majority of the American public. They believe those entities are not paying enough taxes -- not that they are paying too much.

Trump and the congressional Republicans are playing with fire on this issue. They may be able to cut taxes for their rich friends, but it has the potential to come back and bite them in the 2018 elections.