President Joe Biden has proposed a number of tax hikes on wealthy households and corporations, and it looks like some of his proposals — including a 25% minimum tax on billionaires — could win backing from voters across the political spectrum.
According to a new Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, 69% of voters in seven swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — said they agree with the idea of raising taxes on billionaires. The same percentage said they agree with raising taxes on those making more than $400,000 a year, a much lower threshold and one that the Biden administration has used as shorthand for the wealthy.
Support for a billionaire tax included majorities in both major parties, with 83% of Democrats expressing approval along with 58% of Republicans and 66% of independents.
“It seems that everybody is for taxing the rich,” Eli Yokley, an analyst for Morning Consult, told Bloomberg. “This is a good populist issue for the Biden campaign,” he added, since widespread support for higher taxes on the wealthy “could give him some leeway with Congress when it comes to extending the Trump tax cuts.”
Still, the poll has some bad news for Biden, too. More voters said they trust former president Donald Trump to handle tax policy, with the leading Republican presidential candidate beating Biden 47% to 35% on that issue.
Swing state voters were divided on Trump’s proposed universal 10% tariff on imported goods, raised to 60% for goods made in China, with half of respondents saying they support the idea, and a quarter saying they do not. Extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts past 2025, when many of the individual provisions expire, was more popular. Just 32% of respondents said they want those tax cuts to come to an end, as currently scheduled.
