Opinion Poll Finds General Lack Of Support For Bush's 2003 Tax Cuts

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

23 April 2004

Three-quarters of Americans would have spent money on job creation rather than tax cuts in 2003 if given the choice, according to the latest Money/ICR poll, published last week.

Echoing the results of similar polls conducted recently, the survey found that 76% of the respondents would have preferred the government to have devoted more resources to job creation programs, instead of cutting taxes.

Also, given the choice between trimming the budget deficit or cutting taxes in 2003, more people (49%) would have chosen the former option than the 42% who favoured cutting tax.

The survey found that similar sentiments were expressed by those in the investor class. Some 70% of investors said job creation would have been preferable to tax cuts last year, and 52% said cutting the deficit was more important than cutting taxes.

Perhaps surprisingly, only 43% of investors reported that they had personally benefited from last year’s tax cuts, while 51% told the survey that they had not gained from the tax cuts.

Nevertheless, there was clear support for President Bush’s tax cuts among Republicans, 82% of whom felt the cuts were either very successful or somewhat successful.

The majority of Democrats (70%) on the other hand, considered that the tax cuts were either not too successful or not successful at all.

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