Wealthy Agree: Raise our Income Tax

It's not exactly surprising that most Americans think the wealthy should pay more tax. But a recent poll unearthed a pretty interesting finding: The wealthy are on board with the need for their marginal income tax rates to rise to address the bulging deficit.

According to a Quinnipiac University Poll nearly two-thirds of households with income of at least $250,000 say they agree that their tax bill needs to go up to help address the national deficit.

And it's likely they will get their wish, as Congress is expected to go along with the Obama Administration's proposal to let the Bush income tax cuts expire at the end of this year for married couples with income above $250,000 ($200,000 for individuals.) The 33 percent tax rate will revert to 36 percent and the current top rate of 35 percent will return to its Clintonian top of 39.6 percent.

Wealthy? You Talking to Me?
While folks already in the $250,000+ income tranche are ready for their tax hike, it's interesting that there was markedly less enthusiasm for the income tax hike among people making $100,000-$250,000. Just 51 percent of poll respondents in that upper tier of President Obama's middle class were hot on the idea of higher tax rates. Seems that $250,000 isn't everyone's definition of wealthy.

Here's the income breakdown:

Do you think - raising income taxes on households making more than $250,000 should or should not be a main part of any government approach to the deficit?

Source: Quinnipiac University Poll

I'm guessing that the 64 percent of the wealthy folks who say they approve of being hit with a higher tax bill come 2011 included a large contingent that made way more than $250,000. The tip off was another question in the poll that asked if income tax rates should be raised for households making more than $1 million. There was clear unanimity on that income cutoff: 71 percent of the respondents with household income between $100,000-$250,000 and 67 percent with income of at least $250,000 said yes.

Of course, raising the top income tax rate to 39.6 percent will not solve much. But the majority of poll respondents-more than 7 out of 10-were against the idea of raising middle class income tax rates, or addressing the two big kahunas of benefit entitlement: Social Security and Medicare.

"It's clear that those who want serious deficit reduction have their work cut out for them in convincing the public, which seems adamantly opposed to cutting the programs with the largest budgets," summed up Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Moreover, although majorities favor increasing taxes on those who earn $250,000 or more, they are opposed to hiking them on the middle class, which would raise much, much more money since there are so many more people who are middle class."

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