Above Photo: Mike Cohen/Flickr
New Polling Shows 75% of Americans Support Taxing the Rich, Including 70% of Independents and 60% of Republicans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Tax March announced its new “Tax the Rich” project, an effort to educate the American people and policymakers about taxing the rich and advocate for raising taxes on the country’s wealthiest individuals and most profitable corporations.
The seven-figure campaign, led by Tax March and coordinated in partnership with more than a dozen progressive organizations, seeks to build upon the current momentum around taxation in a way that empowers voters, elected leaders, and activists to advocate for taxing the rich.
The new project will focus heavily on organizing in states critical to both the 2020 presidential nomination process and the 2020 general election, including the launch of a robust Iowa state program headed by ICAN’s Sue Dinsdale and commitments in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and other states. In addition to aggressive on-the-ground organizing, Tax March will spend more than $1 million on television, radio, digital, and print ads to educate the public about taxing the rich.
At the start of the new project, Tax March is also releasing new polling about taxing the wealthy, which found that 75 percent of Americans—including 70 percent of Independents and even 60 percent of Republicans—support taxing the rich.
“Taxing the rich isn’t just good policy, it’s good politics—and this campaign will prove that. Raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy is wildly popular with a majority of both Democratic and Republican voters. Unfortunately, it seems many policymakers have yet to wake up to this reality,” said Maura Quint, Executive Director of Tax March. “The goal of the ‘Tax the Rich’ movement is raise the visibility of this issue until it becomes impossible to consider yourself to be a progressive leader if you do not support taxing the rich.”
“This important poll provides a detailed look at how voters feel about taxes and the overwhelming message is that they want the wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share,” said Frank Clemente, Executive Director of Americans for Tax Fairness, on the poll released today. “If we are ever going to address our important national priorities, including health care, infrastructure, education, and climate change, we must raise trillions of new tax dollars from the well off and implement a tax system that works for everyone. That starts by repealing the Trump-GOP tax cuts for the rich and corporations.”
“Political corruption has led to tax giveaways for big corporations and the top 1 percent for decades, instead of investing in the increasingly urgent needs of the American people. It’s resulted in an economy where working people and families get left behind, while the gains go to corporate profits and Wall Street,” said Seth Hanlon, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. “The first step in correcting this so we can leave the next generation better off is to tax the richest Americans at a fair rate and close the loopholes that leave so many massive corporations paying nothing—the American people already know it, Washington just needs to start listening.”
“Concentration of wealth equals concentration of power,” said Indivisible Co-Executive Director Ezra Levin. “That means taxing the rich not only builds a more just economy, it builds a stronger democracy for all of us.”
“There is perhaps no greater sign that the economy is rigged against working families than the fact that the 400 richest Americans—the top 0.00025 percent of the population—have tripled their share of the nation’s wealth since the early 1980s,” said Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers. “The simplest and most elegant solution is fairness: To whom much is given, much is required. That means that the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes to fund the vital social services—such as public education and accessible and affordable health care—that give every American a fair shot at success. By funding our future, we can build a strong economy based on a virtuous circle, not a vicious cycle, and help everyone achieve their American dream.”
“In America, equal opportunity should mean using taxes to pay for a hand up when you need it, not a handout to the rich who already have so much in comparison,” said Lisa Gilbert, Vice President of Legislative Affairs for Public Citizen. “By unrigging the tax code and having the wealthy pay more of their fair share, we could generate needed funds to make greater investments in our communities that will improve the lives of everyone.”
The project is launching with the support of the country’s largest grassroots organizations and progressive groups, including: American Federation of Teachers; Americans for Tax Fairness; Center for American Progress Action Fund; Health Care Voter; Iowa Citizen Action Network (ICAN); Indivisible Project; Moms Rising; Public Citizen; United for Respect; and numerous other national and state-based groups.