President Barack Obama smiles as he is introduced by Jim McNerney, chief executive officer of The Boeing Company, before speaking about the fiscal cliff during an address before the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers, Wednesday, Dec. 5,2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Poll shows support for raising taxes on the rich
President Barack Obama smiles as he is introduced by Jim McNerney, chief executive officer of The Boeing Company, before speaking about the fiscal cliff during an address before the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers, Wednesday, Dec. 5,2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
By ALAN FRAM and JENNIFER AGIESTA
Associated Press /
December 6, 2012
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Sentiments about culling savings from Social Security and Medicare were similar among Democrats and Republicans. The strongest opposition to raising the Medicare eligibility age came from people ages 30 to 64. People 50 to 64 were most opposed to slowing the growth of Social Security benefits.
Just over half of Democrats favor cutting defense; two-thirds of Republicans oppose it.
People were about evenly split over an idea voiced by defeated GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to put a dollar limit on taxpayers’ deductions.
Another idea — ending the tax deduction for home mortgage interest in exchange for lower income tax rates — was favored 42 percent to 33 percent, slightly less support than the proposal received in 2010. Homeowners were closely divided over the proposal.
Just over half the poll respondents say they doubt Obama will be able to reduce budget deficits during his remaining four years in office. In his first days in office in 2009, more people than not thought he would be able to do so.
The poll found little change in the nation’s partisan makeup after the contentious presidential election campaign, with 33 percent saying they consider themselves Democrats, 23 percent Republicans and 27 percent independents. That’s about the same as in AP-GfK polling over the past six months.
The Associated Press-GfK poll was conducted Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,002 adults nationwide. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
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AP news survey specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
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Online:
http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com
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