The data is in and it looks like most Americans are just fine with taxing the rich

In March 2024, polling from Bloomberg and Morning Consult discovered that the majority of Americans are okay with taxing the rich. It's a phrase they not only agree with but a policy point they would like to see enacted. 

The phrase ‘Tax the Rich’ has become the proverbial rallying cry of the progressive left in the United States but it turns out that this sentiment really does have a much broader appeal than you think it might. 

People from both sides of the political spectrum think that taxing the rich is a good idea based on the discoveries made by Bloomberg and Morning Consult. So let's dive into what the polling found to see just how popular the idea of taxing the rich is among Americans. 

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Bloomberg revealed that 69% of registered voters in seven swing states favored higher taxes on billionaires and supported higher income taxes on people who make $400,000 or more a year. 

The finding could have been a major asset for Joe Biden and his re-election bid. The President was hoping to propose increased taxes on the rich according to his 2025 budget proposal released in March. 

However, now that Vice President Kamala Harris has taken over the Democratic ticket, it is unclear if the policy will be included in her administration if she wins the election.   

According to CNBC, Biden's White House was aiming to reduce the country’s federal deficit by $3 trillion dollars over the next ten years. The main driver behind the debt reduction was a new tax on the rich. 

Biden was hoping to impose a 25% tax rate on unrealized gains of the country’s wealthiest households and is also planning to adjust the corporate tax code. If successful, it would raise billions in funds. 

Billion-dollar companies would see their taxes raised from 15% to 21% in addition to a border corporate tax rate hike to 28%. This would not only be good for the country but also the government. 

“We can do all of our investments by asking those in the top 1 and 2% to pay more into the system,” Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young told reporters. 

Biden’s new taxes on the wealthiest in America would likely to see broad support from all sides of the political aisle based on the polling data from Bloomberg and Morning Consult. 

There was very strong support for taxing billionaires across the political board with 83% of Democrats, 58% of Republicans, and 66% of Independents indicating they approved of the idea. 

"It seems that everybody is for taxing the rich. This is a good populist issue for the Biden campaign," said Eli Yokley, US politics analyst for Morning Consult, who also added the insight could help Biden back when he was still the presumed 2024 Democratic presidential candidate. 

Yokley explained that the idea that Trump voters backed raising taxes on the rich could give Biden and his current administration “some leeway with Congress when it comes to extending the Trump tax cuts." But is it now possible that this edge could end up helping the Vice President? 

In early September, Harris outlined her economic plan for the country, and in it, she endorsed Biden's 2025 Fiscal Budget, which included his proposed taxes on billionaires and America's wealthiest citizens according to NBC News.

Bloomberg pointed out that only 32% of respondents supported letting Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire at the end of the scheduled period in 2025. Whether or not Biden will work to extend them is not yet known. 

Interestingly, while Biden was the one making policy moves to tax the rich it was Trump that voters trusted more to handle tax policy. Trump led Biden 47% to 35% across all seven of the swing states. Unfortunately, we currently do not have similar numbers for Harris and Trump. 

Just over 50% of all respondents indicated that they supported raising the corporate tax rate to 21% while over 70% noted that they would support cutting the individual tax rate across all income groups. 

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Roughly half of the respondents liked Trump’s idea of a 10% universal tax on all imports and a 60% tariff on goods from China. The polling included 4,932 registered voters from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.