Fox News Distorts Its Poll Results On Tax Cuts For The Wealthy
Reported by Ellen - September 20, 2010 -
A recent headline on FoxNews.com trumpeted, "Nearly Half of Americans Oppose Tax Hikes for Wealthy." While that was literally true -47% said they were opposed to raising taxes on "high-income earners" - the headline writer forgot to mention that more people, 48%, supported the measure. (H/T John P.)
If you dig into the poll, questions 27-29 deal with the Bush tax cuts. Question 27 asked whether Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire or go forward. A solid majority of 63% thought they should go forward. Clearly that was way more than the "nearly half of Americans" the FoxNews.com writer was referring to in the headline. Also, the question and answers were about tax cuts as a whole, not for the wealthy.
Question 28 asked if Congress should "continue the tax cuts for everyone, continue the tax cuts only on incomes below $250,000 dollars, or allow the tax cuts to expire for everyone and let taxes go back up to their previous levels?" 40% thought the cuts should "continue for everyone" and 44% thought they should continue for those earning less than $250,000. 40% is probably not the "nearly half of Americans" the headline writer had in mind, either.
For reference, the pollsters included the same questions and answers from a late July, 2010 poll. That poll found that only 36% thought tax cuts should continue only for those earning less than $250,000 while 44% thought they should continue for all.
In other words, the number of Americans who believe tax cuts should continue for all has shrunk by 4 percentage points in the last few months while those who believe they should continue for the middle class has grown by 8 points.
I don't know about you but the wording of Question 29 seemed to me weighted toward favoring tax cuts for the wealthy. It said, "Some people support a tax increase on high income earners because they believe high earners can afford it. Others oppose tax increases on high-income earners because they believe high earners are the people who own small businesses, create jobs and spend a bigger share of the money to keep the economy going. Which do you agree with more -- do you support or oppose tax increases on high-income earners?"
But even then more people supported "tax increases for high-income earners" than opposed: 48% to 47%.
That 47% seems to be the "nearly half of Americans" who oppose letting the Bush tax cuts expire for upper income earners that the headline writer was referring to. He or she just failed to mention that a higher percentage of that "nearly half" held the opposite view.
