Voters Still Give the Edge to Extending Bush Tax Cuts for All Taxpayers

Extending the so-called Bush tax cuts is front and center as the lame duck Congress returns this week, and voters still hold a slight preference for continuing those tax cuts for all Americans rather than continuing them for all but the wealthy.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters think the tax cuts, scheduled to end December 31, should be extended for all Americans. Forty-four percent (44%), however, believe they should be extended for everyone except the wealthy.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

This marks basically no change in voter attitudes since early September when members of Congress began campaigning in earnest for reelection.

President Obama and congressional Democrats are willing to extend the tax cuts for all Americans except individuals who earn more than $200,000 annually and couples with a yearly income of more than $250,000.

(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 November 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.

So do most voters think extending the tax cuts for wealthier Americans is a good economic move? How do unaffiliated voters view the tax cut debate? Become a Platinum member and find out.