Poll: Americans Side With Democrats on Bush Tax Cuts

The American people are more in line with the White House than the GOP and incoming House Speaker Rep. John Boehner in their opinion on how to handle the expiring Bush-era tax cuts, according to a new CBS News poll.  Republicans argue that the midterm elections signaled a demand by the American people to halt tax hikes and extend the Bush-era cuts to all Americans, but the CBS poll finds that 53 percent of Americans want the Bush tax cuts extended only for households earning less than $250,000 per year, as Democrats have proposed.

Only 26 percent of Americans support the GOP's proposal to extend the cuts for all Americans and 14 percent say the cuts should expire completely.  The poll suggests that the Democratic-led House voted in alignment with the American people yesterday when it voted to extend cuts for those below the $200,000/$250,000 threshold.

From the poll:

Seventy percent of Democrats want to extend the cuts only on incomes below $250,000. ... Forty-seven percent of independents and 41 percent of Republicans agree.  Only ten percent of Democrats and one in four independents back the GOP proposal to extend the tax cuts for all. Even among Republicans, support for extending all the cuts is less than half at 46 percent.

Read the full story at CBS News.