A majority of Americans believe they pay more than their fair share of taxes to federal, state, and local governments, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll.
Of those surveyed, 66 percent of voters nationwide said they considered themselves overtaxed, while only 25 percent said they were not.
Interestingly, the poll found that “lower income voters (were) more likely than others to believe the nation is overtaxed,” which comes as a bit of a surprise considering last week’s revelation that only half of Americans pay any federal income taxes at all.
When asked what the appropriate level of taxation should be, three-fourths of respondents said that “the average American should pay no more than 20 percent of their income in taxes” – markedly lower than what most Americans believe they pay in taxes now, 30 percent or more.
This weekend’s finding that Americans are unhappy with the nation’s rising tax burden dovetails with the results from earlier polls that show that “two-thirds of voters prefer a government with fewer services and lower taxes” and “46 percent of voters nationwide favor an across-the-board tax cut for all Americans.”
With such a strong outcry for lowering the tax burden at every level of government, I guess the only question now is whether our political leaders are listening.
– James Quintero