In stark contrast to President Donald Trump's tax proposal, most Americans think that wealthy Americans should pay more, not less, in taxes.
In a new Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday, about 75 percent of Americans answered that they at least "somewhat agree" that the wealthy should pay more in taxes. Fifty-three percent "strongly" agreed with the statement.
Contrary to President Donald Trump's insistence that his tax plan will benefit middle-class Americans, analysis from the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution's Tax Policy Center has shown that the richest one percent of Americans--those making over $730,000 per year--would benefit the most from the proposal.
"The Republican plan is essentially the opposite of what the vast majority of Americans want to see in tax policy."--John Atcheson
The poll came out as Trump prepared to speak in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, pitching his tax reform plan to an audience of truck drivers and other workers. According to his prepared remarks, Trump was expected to tell the workers that they would likely get a $4,000 raise via tax breaks if his plan passes in Congress.
But the Tax Policy Center's analysis paints a different picture. The bottom 95 percent of earners "would see average after-tax incomes increase between 0.5 and 1.2 percent. Taxpayers in the top one percent would receive about 50 percent of the total tax benefit; their after-tax income would increase an average of 8.5 percent."
Trump also wants to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent; a poll taken by Politico/Morning Consult last month found that this was an unpopular plan as well, with 60 percent of respondents saying corporations already pay too little in taxes.
As columnist John Atcheson wrote for Common Dreams on Wednesday, "The Republican plan is essentially the opposite of what the vast majority of Americans want to see in tax policy."
In Harrisburg on Wednesday, protesters with the Not One Penny campaign as well as the SEIU were there to greet Trump, ready to debunk his claims that most Americans will benefit from his tax proposal.
