56% of GOP Voters Like Cain’s ‘9-9-9’ Tax Reform Plan

Voters aren’t well versed on surging Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” tax reform plan, but most agree that if it becomes law, Congress won’t wait long to raise the tax rates higher.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 26% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the tax plan that Cain has been pushing on the campaign trail. Sixteen percent (16%) oppose it, but 58% don’t know enough about it to voice an opinion. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Support and opposition increase when voters are told that Cain’s plan would eliminate all existing federal taxes and replace them with a nine percent flat tax on household income (allowing only charitable deductions), a nine percent corporate tax and a nine percent national sales tax. Forty percent (40%) favor the 9-9-9 plan once it’s explained, and opposition rises to 29%. Thirty-one percent (31%) still have no opinion.

Most GOP voters (56%) support the plan after it’s explained to them, compared to 27% of Democrats and 36% of unaffiliated voters. However, the large number of people with no opinion means that these numbers could shift significantly if Cain remains a top contender for the GOP nomination.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of voters who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement like Cain’s plan, an opinion shared by just 32% of those who are not members of the grass roots movement. A plurality (45%) of the Political Class opposes the plan, but 46% of Mainstream voters favor it.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 6-7, 2011 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.