Poll: Majority of Americans want to end Bush Tax cuts for the rich

David Phillips | Clark County Elections 2010 Examiner

A new CNN Poll released today shows that 69 percent of Americans want to let the Bush/Republican tax cuts for the rich expire.

A major campaign issue for Republicans as we head into this Novembers election are the Bush/Republican Tax cuts that are set to expire this coming January.

Republicans argue that while the current economy is still in a recovery mode after the economic policies put in place by them, congress needs to extend the tax cuts that were in acted in 2001 and 2003, not let them expire.

They argue that the tax cuts for the rich, if extended, will help to create jobs, but data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) proves them wrong.

The nonpartisan website PolitiFact did some fact checking after they heard Sen. Sherrod Brown talking about the number of jobs created by Bush vs. Clinton while appearing on MSNBC last month.

Number of jobs as of January, 1993, a week before Clinton took office: 109.725 million. Number of jobs as of Jan. 2001, a week before Clinton left office: 132.469 million. Net Gain under Clinton: 22.7 million jobs.

Now for Bush, who succeeded Clinton in the White House. As already noted, the nation had 132.469 million jobs as he was taking office. Number of jobs on Jan. 12, 2009, a week before Bush left office: 133.549 million. Net gain under Bush: 1.08 million jobs.

So now you see that the Tax cuts for the rich did not create very many job, but it did create more money for the rich while creating a bigger divided between Wall Street and Main Street.

Now lets look at the Republicans other economic argument regarding the Tax cuts, they say that the Bush /Republican tax cuts did not add to our deficit.

An article in the Washington Post earlier this month using data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), shows that the Bush Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 added $2.3 trillion over the last 10 years to our deficit.

Excerpt from Washington Post article:

The "Bush tax cuts," passed in 2001 and 2003, remain the single largest cause of America's structural deficit -- that is, the deficit not caused by the collapse in tax revenue when the economy goes into recession. The Bush administration inherited budget surpluses from the Clinton administration. What turned these into deficits, even before the recession? There were three fundamental new costs: the tax cuts, the Medicare prescription-drug bill and post-9/11 security spending (including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Of these the tax cuts were by far the largest, adding up to $2.3 trillion over 10 years. According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly half the cost of all legislation enacted from 2001 to 2007 can be attributed to the tax cuts.

By allowing the Tax cut for the rich to expire, President Obama said that he would revert our tax policies back to where they were under former President Bill Clinton who created 22.7 million jobs with his tax rates.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Democrats upon their return from their August break, plan to make permanent the 2001 tax cuts for middle-class Americans earning less than $200,000, but let the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans expire when they end in January.

And 69 percent of Americans agree with ending the Bush/Republican tax policies. Since it appears that most proposed legislation is driven by popularity and polls these days, maybe this will help them with their decision.

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