According to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, almost half of Americans oppose the Republican’s new tax bill.
Of those US adults who were aware of the changes, a huge 49 percent said they did not agree with the new plans. This was compared to 31 percent who said they supported it and 20 percent said they “don’t know,”
The new tax legislation will cut levels of corporation tax, cut taxes paid by rich Americans and offer some temporary cuts to other individuals.
When asked in the survey who would benefit most from these new tax plans, over half of Americans said it would be either the wealthy or large U.S. corporations. Twelve percent selected “all Americans,”.
The poll was taken Dec. 3 to 7, surveying 1,499 adults, 1,138 of those surveyed knew of the changes to the tax legislation.
According to this poll, the Republican tax reform bill will be the most unpopular major legislation passed in the United States in the past 30 years.
The Treasury Department said the new bill will add one trillion dollars to the national deficit.
Many have criticized the new tax legislation, saying it will exacerbate inequality among Americans. Lily Batchelder, a New York University professor, said: “The bill is investing heavily in the wealthy and their children — by boosting the value of their stock portfolios, creating new loopholes for them to avoid tax on their labor income, and cutting taxes on massive inheritances,”
“At the same time, it leaves low- and middle-income workers with even fewer resources to invest in their children, and increases the number of Americans without health insurance.”
“The bill makes the economic playing field even more tilted toward the most fortunate,” Batchelder said, “which means over time the distributional effects of the bill will be even worse than these estimates suggest.”