Americans are willing to eliminate the estate tax, reducing taxes for the rich, but they also want the rich to pay more taxes.
Gallup recently conducted a survey of support by Americans for some of the proposals made by Republican Presidential candidates and found mixed results as revealed in "Americans React to Presidential Candidates' Tax Proposals."
Both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have proposed eliminating the federal estate tax. According to the survey, the majority of Americans agree.
A total of 54% of respondents said that they agree with the proposal. Only 19% disagreed. The remainder responded that they did not know enough about the issue to have an opinion. As the estate tax only applies to a very small percentage of Americans this could be taken as an indication that the majority of Americans want to lower taxes on the wealthy.
However, only one other tax reform proposal also received support from a majority of those surveyed. A total of 63% agreed with Donald Trump's proposal to close most tax loopholes and deductions available to the very rich.
What this means about attitudes toward taxes on the wealthy in the U.S. is unclear.
A future survey is planned to survey opinions about the Democratic candidates' positions that could clear things up. However, it does appear to be good news for opponents of the estate tax. Republicans have wanted to do so for a long time and all of their candidates are in agreement on the issue. Both remaining Democrats want to increase the estate tax.
However, the issue doesn't seem to be on the front burner for the voting public.
Reference: Gallup (March 17, 2016) "Americans React to Presidential Candidates' Tax Proposals."