Support for Tax Cut Deal Down

Most voters still approve of the tax cutting deal between President Obama and senior congressional Republicans, but support has fallen somewhat – in some surprising places.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters now favor the agreement that extends the Bush tax cuts for all Americans for two more years, cuts the Social Security payroll tax rate for one year and renews long-term unemployment benefits for an additional 13 months. Thirty-one percent (31%) oppose the deal, and another 17% are not sure about it. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A week ago, 56% of supported the agreement, with 29% opposed and 15% undecided.

Support among Republicans has fallen from 70% a week ago to 61% now. Democrats are less enthusiastic and support the plan by a 46% to 35% margin. Those figures mark little change from a week ago. Unaffiliated voters backed the deal by a 20-point margin in the previous survey. Now that gap is down to 12 points.

In Washington, many Democrats have expressed unhappiness with the deal because they favored extending the Bush tax cuts only to those earning less than $200,000 a year. But conservatives and some Republicans including presidential hopeful Mitt Romney have begun to question the amount of additional spending necessary to fund the unemployment benefits and other parts of the agreement.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on December 13-14, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Has there been a similar downward shift among those who think the deal is good for the economy? Become a Platinum Member and find out.