How can 37% of Americans be in favor of tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent among us?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/142940/americans-allowing-tax-cuts-wealthy-expire.aspx

September 10, 2010

Americans OK Allowing Tax Cuts for Wealthy to Expire

One in three favor keeping tax cuts for all taxpayers

by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- A majority of Americans favor letting the tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration expire for the wealthy. While 37% support keeping the tax cuts for all Americans, 44% want them extended only for those making less than $250,000 and 15% think they should expire for all taxpayers.

--------------------------

Can't be that many trust fund babies out there. Can there be?

[Yavin4]

1. See Joe The Plumber

They either mistakingly believe that they're in that top 10% or will be soon and want those breaks when it happens for them.

[NNN0LHI]

2. The same people I see pissing away their last few bucks on lottery tickets at the gas station?

[CTyankee]

18. And the guys IN the gas station, changing your oil...

my mechanic's son was like that 10 years ago when he was 18. He was gonna make it big and be rich (he was vague about how that would happen). Today, he's still changing oil in his Dad's garage. Only now he has a kid he has to support (not married to its mother), he hasn't finished community college due to financial problems, and he watched his mother die from lack of adequate health care (she was only in her early 50s). He now says he's FOR universal health care.

[DefenseLawyer]

47. Exactly

The nonexistent taxes on my nonexistent business are killing me!

[w8liftinglady]

3. hell,Try coming to Ellis and Henderson counties-mean income-31K...85% Repub

Try to discuss the republican fiasco...it always goes back to the "Christian" Right.

[BzaDem]

4. Perhaps because there is a significant portion of our population that... gasp... isn't Democratic?

[NNN0LHI]

9. What does political persuasion have to do with this?

I must be missing something.

Don

[n2doc]

20. Because people identify with the policies that their party supports

My feeling is this is far stronger in Republicans. They believe in tax cuts for the rich because it is part of the worldview of their party, just like they believe in cutting social security and medicare, that climate change is a hoax, and that Sarah Palin is well qualified to be president. It is a package, follow one point, follow all.

[TheWraith]

46. Bing!

They believe it because they believe what they're told to, uncritically. If they're told it's good for them, they believe it. If they're told they can be rich someday too by hard work, they believe it. If they're told there's no contradiction between bombing residential neighborhoods in Baghdad and calling abortion murder.

[Drale]

5. I heard this from like 4 different people

They want to treat the rich well, because well hell they might be rich someday and they would want to be treated well. Probably one of the stupidest things I have ever heard, but thats America today. Thanks alot Fox News, Fuck you as well.

[yourout]

6. Cause Rush told them to.

If he told them jumping off a cliff was a great idea our population would be about 30% smaller by tomorrow.

[Ozymanithrax]

7. It is called faith...

They hold their ideology to be self evident.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. Stockholm Syndrome ...

:shrug:

[Enrique]

10. they believe in trickle-down n/t

[XemaSab]

11. That 37% believes that they are or will be in that 2%

:banghead:

[RT Atlanta]

31. You're correct...

in my opinion. The pukes have to be commended for tapping into the "dream" part of the "American Dream" sales pitch, which is why folks buy into this crap.

30 years of "trickle down" has not produced much in the way of "trickle down" jobs and long term safety net for us.

[bullwinkle428]

12. Drunk on the Fox News Kool-Aid.

[jobycom]

13. Not everyone votes just for themselves, and that can be good or bad.

People vote on philosophies or ideals, or what they think should be done. Some people think government should be smaller, and cutting taxes on everyone makes government spend less and become smaller. Some believe that a smaller government is less oppressive, so we all benefit. Yeah, they are idiots, but we are idiots, too, if we try to boil everything down to selfish motivations about individual best interests. Most people aren't below the poverty line, either, so the same logic means people would vote against any social programs that help struggling families.

We need to quit seeing the world in an us-against-them mentality, and start looking at the trends and beliefs that actually motivate voters. Show voters why an efficient government is in the national best interest and helps them. Show them the fairness of making those who benefit the most from society pay the most back to society. Show them that the economy functions better when government strongly invests in rebuilding and in stimulating and directing growth, but functions poorly when necessary functions are cut or ignored so that those with the most money can have more. You can even show those with the most that they are stronger and have more when the entire nation does better--a rising tide lifts all boats, in other words. People can see that if we show them, instead of trying to hide what we want to do for fear it will turn off voters who won't vote for us anyway.

We're all in a boat, to keep the Kennedy metaphor alive. The rich are in one end, the poor in the other, and most of us are in the middle. The boat is slowly filling with water. The Republican solution to save the boat is to bail water out of the rich end. Too many Democrats seem to think the solution is to bail water out of the poor end, instead. The real solution is to fix the leaks and bail out everyone. The Republicans don't want to do that because it requires buying more buckets. We need to show people that more buckets and a little pitch are good investments, and if the rich pay more so we can afford them, it is still in their best interest to do so.

[CTyankee]

19. I like your tag line! It's so true! I had been against unrec because it was

a waste of time but now I see the unrec wars as hilarious and I join every thread on them just to egg them on!

[JustAnotherGen]

45. You hit the nail on the head . . .

My leanings/political philosophy is or rather ‘should according to the Republicans’ be at odds with my income level. Between a 20 year payout of a trust and a high paying job – as a single person? I say let that tax cut expire for me for the money over 200K. How much do I REALLY need. How much does ONE person need?

Now when it expires in my ‘ideal world’ - I don’t want to pay for these effing wars anymore. I don’t. I want that money to go towards 1/3 Social Justice Programs (Medicare FOR ALL, SS, Veterans Benes, Head Start Programs, Public Schools, etc. etc.), 1/3 for the debt, and 1/3 for Infrastructure rebuild and development.

But see – I’m a leftist progressive – and my mind works ‘that’ way.

Keep in mind though – that trust comes from a farmer/illegal distlller (in the 1920’s), business owner grandfather and the chunk of change from the other grandfather came from construction: laying cement, building things, MAKING things, hard work. Both men came home from work each day stinking to high heaven and what they handed down to my parents and then to me is worth more than gold: A sense of one for all and all for one in America.

Those who are poor (I’m beginning to believe that the economic bracketss are poor, rich, and wealthy – i.e. no middle class whatsoever) and believe in tax cuts for the rich are actually People of the Greed. Greed is not something only the wealthiest have – it’s people thinking that they are going to strike it rich and stick it to other people can have as well.

P.S. If enough people in the over 200K and over 250K are taxed at a higher rate - we CAN do all three of the things I want those additional dollars to go to. I 1000000% believe it can be done.

[fascisthunter]

14. 37% of the Brain Dead

[bluedigger]

15. Easy - just parse the numbers.

3% are closely related.
4% are employees.
10% have more or less realistic aspirations of joining the club.
20% are dumbfucks.
___
37% See! It's easy!:crazy:

[Kweli4Real]

16. Most likely ...

They believe that somehow, someway, they'll win the lottery or a long lost uncle will leave them a bunch of money, or maybe, they'll discover/invent the new "sliced bread" idea and become insanely wealthy. So JUST IN CASE, they gotta make sure the guv'ment don't get their hard earned money.

[GoCubsGo]

27. Yep. Wannabes, all of them. n/t

[treestar]

37. This is exactly right

The mass American delusion that no evidence of reality can shake!

[GrpCaptMandrake]

17. How?

It's easy: the right-wing controls the messaging landscape. As such, whatever outright falsehood the right peddles becomes de facto "truth." Our side has nearly nothing in the way of countering it.

[Ganja Ninja]

21. I thought I heard one time that something like 25% believe in angels.

O8)

[cleanhippie]

22. Because 37% of us are ignorant sheep who care not for the world beyond the fence line.

[ladjf]

23. Invalid polls. nt

[hayu_lol]

24. Einstein once compared genius with stupidity...

"...genius has it's limits."

[andym]

25. The ghost of Reaganism is alive and well

Just be happy it's only 37%.

[JoseGaspar]

26. What have you got for them?

1. 10% unemployment until the economy magically gets "better"? (The Fed says five to six years)

2. Slow, incremental "progress" which by 2050 ought to get most people back to 1970?

3. "Green jobs" and high-speed rail?

4. Another 5 million foreclosures?

4. Really, really good Supreme Court appointments?

Most people hear and know that the rich control everything and a significant number throw up their hands and say, "give 'em everything and maybe we get a job." It's traditional and it lines up with the principles of the Civic Catechism: "free-enterprise" means general prosperity, etc., etc...

It is not "smart", nor is it likely to bring anything but pain... but...

Seriously, what has the OP got to offer as a competing "program" that sounds even faintly realistic?

[displacedvermoter]

44. Don't overlook all those great Health Insurance Reform

initiatives that start kicking in come 2014!!!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

28. 37% = Republicans

They are zombies. That show Walking Dead.......that's them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Because some day they will be amongst the 2%

Common, if wrong headed belief, to the point of religious fervor.

[City Lights]

30. Too many Americans are easily duped.

The easily-duped are the ones FuxNooze/Rethuglicans/Conservatives concentrate on. They know this group can be fooled 100% of the time.

[Waiting For Everyman]

32. Good question. Short answer: pseudo-religious brainwashing.

There is such a thing as mass brainwashing, but I know of no comparable mass "snapping-out-of-it" technique. Until we discover how to do that, we have a problem.

[toddwv]

41. +1

Yes.

[Stevenmarc]

33. Because 37% are under the delusion that one day they will enter the realm of the 1%

[subterranean]

34. The wording of the poll is misleading.

It asks whether or not the tax cuts should be extended for all taxpayers, or just those making under $250,000. The fact is that under Obama's proposal, the tax cuts would stay in place for ALL taxpayers -- even the wealthiest -- on taxable income up to $250,000. That distinction seems lost on most people, including Gallup.

[BlueJac]

35. The Koolaid must be tasty.......

the idiots of the world listen to lipballs Rush

[treestar]

36. They've bought the right wing argument that the rich will invest

that money which will create jobs. They imbibed the anti-government crap - that the government cannot do anything efficiently and that what it does is "socialism" that drags everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

[librechik]

39. yes they do, because they assume the rich will do the right thing. It's only logical.

they won't. Their selfishness and greed overwhelm any desire they have to do right.

[Mimosa]

38. There are millions who believe what they hear on Limbaugh and Fox 'News" n/t

[TheKentuckian]

40. think of how goofy the average person is, and keep in mind half the population is dumber than that

[randr]

42. They will all be millionaires as soon as their ship comes in--

When The Ship Comes In

Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin’
Like the stillness in the wind
’Fore the hurricane begins
The hour when the ship comes in

Oh the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking

Oh the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they’ll be smiling
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in

And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they’re spoken
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean

A song will lift
As the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in

Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin’
And the ship’s wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin’

Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’
But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it’s for real
The hour when the ship comes in

Then they’ll raise their hands
Sayin’ we’ll meet all your demands
But we’ll shout from the bow your days are numbered
And like Pharoah’s tribe
They’ll be drownded in the tide
And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered

Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music

[Zoeisright]

43. It's called stupidity. And gullibility.

The mouth-breathers are so easily led around by the nose that they believe anything the right wing noise machine tells them. They'll vote against their own best interests in a heartbeat because they are so stupid.