Progressive pollster finds majority support for Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan to impose a wealth tax on fortunes larger than $50 million enjoys net support across party lines, according to a new poll by a progressive analytics firm.
Data For Progress, a research group that’s been testing opinion on a variety of left-leaning policy proposals, commissioned an online survey of Warren’s plan through pollster YouGov Blue.
The survey of 1,282 registered voters asked “Would you (support or oppose/oppose or support) imposing a 2% tax on the assets of those with a net worth over $50 million and a 3% tax on the assets of those with a net worth over $1 billion?”
Sixty-one percent of respondents said they supported the proposal, with 46 percent “strongly” supporting it. Twenty-one percent opposed the idea, with 15 percent doing so “strongly.” The rest were unsure or neutral.
Notably, a plurality of Republicans supported Warren’s wealth tax by a 44-37 margin. Independents supported it by a 61-23 margin while Democrats went for it 76-6.
“We polled Warren’s exact proposal and it’s overwhelmingly popular, even among Republicans,” Data For Progress founder Sean McElwee said in an e-mail. “It’s time for centrists to embrace bipartisan solutions that can unite all Americans, and expropriating the wealth of billionaires is a great place to start.”
It’s not a nonpartisan source, so take it with a grain of salt, and keep an eye out for more polling from independent outlets.
That said, the results don’t appear to be wildly out of line with other recent surveys on taxing the rich, an idea that typically polls well.
Earlier this week, a poll by The Hill-HarrisX on a proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. to tax income over $10 million at a 70 percent rate found strong support across party lines as well. That survey found 59 percent of registered voters supported the proposal including a substantial portion of Republicans, who opposed it by just a 55-45 margin.