Public Opinion and Party Views on Economic Issues

The Democratic Party, on the whole, tends to support fair trade and balances budgets by paying down national debt through increased taxes on Americans who earn more and are in the highest income brackets. Democrats also believe that the government should attempt to create economic opportunities through government intervention when necessary and help those afflicted by the current real estate crisis.The Republican Party, on the other hand, promotes the use of tax relief to protect hardworking Americans and to grow the economy. They believe that income-earners should keep more of the money they gain from hard work. They wish to lower taxes on families and individuals as well as promote savings through the tax code and tax reform.

The following is a poll on ways to fund a bill that Obama submitted to Congress recently concerning job creation. The first chart is a poll on public opinion, the second a look at party opinion. Clearly, in our dire economic situation, the majority of the country favors raising taxes, particularly on corporations and the wealthy if the money is going to support job creation. If we were in an expansion, public opinion on that might change and more people would want to keep the money they earn to encourage investment and savings. It is very apparent that public opinion swings during different parts of the economic cycle.

Even a majority of Republicans, who tend to favor tax relief, want to raise taxes on corporations as a means of funding job creation. This reinforces the point made above that, dire situations call for dire measures and clearly even the Republicans recognize that. However, they do want to avoid taxing individuals and families as they believe that these people, if given tax breaks will be encouraged to invest and transfer wealth through the "trickle down effect."