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BUSINESS

45% Favor Candidate Who Promises to Only Raise Taxes on Wealthy, Highest Level In Over Two Years

For the first time in nearly two years, more voters would vote for a candidate who promises to raise taxes only on the wealthy than one who promises to oppose all tax increases.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely Voters would vote for a candidate who promises to raise taxes only on the rich rather than one who promises to oppose all tax increases.  That’s the highest level measured since October 2008.  Forty-one percent (41%) favor a candidate who opposes all tax increases, while 15% are not sure.  (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Still, just 22% of voters say, generally speaking, that tax increases help the economy.  Roughly half (52%) feel tax increases hurt the economy, and another 13% say they have no impact.  Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.  These findings have changed little in almost three-years of monthly tracking.

Thirty-six percent (36%) feel that under the Obama administration their own personal taxes will go up.  This figure is beginning to return to levels found prior to July 2009.  Following that date, the number of voters who felt taxes were going to increase remained in the mid-to-high 40s.  The most recent survey finds that 11% say their taxes will go down under President Obama, while the plurality (42%) says they will stay about the same.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on February 24-25, 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.

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