Poll Watch: Rasmussen (R) Survey on the Fiscal Cliff

Rasmussen (R) Poll on the Fiscal Cliff 

If Congress and the President take no action, a variety of tax cuts will expire on December 31. These include the Bush tax cuts and temporary cuts in payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. Should Congress and the President extend the tax cuts for another year or should they let the tax cuts expire?

• Extend tax cuts another year 60%
• Let tax cuts expire 28%
• Undecided 12%
  

If Congress and the President take no action, automatic spending cuts including cuts in defense spending and Medicare are scheduled to go into effect on January 1. Should Congress and the President allow these automatic spending cuts to go into effect?

• Yes, they should 32%
• No, they should not 48%
• Not sure 19%
  

If the tax cuts expire, will that be good for the economy, bad for the economy, or have no impact on the economy?

• Good 18%
  
• Bad 56%
• Have no impact 10%
• Undecided 16%
  

If the automatic spending cuts in government programs go into effect, will that be good for the economy, bad for the economy, or have no impact on the economy?

• Good 24%
  
• Bad 41%
• Have no impact 12%
• Undecided 23%
  

Survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted November 8-9, 2012. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.

Inside the numbers: 

Most Republicans (80%) and voters not affiliated with either major political party (60%) want to see the tax cuts extended. Forty-five percent (45%) of Democrats also want to see the tax cuts extended, but 41% do not.

However, 54% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats agree that the government should not allow the automatic spending cuts to take place, while 46% of unaffiliated voters think those cuts should be allowed to go into effect.

Regardless of what voters believe, 76% of them are following news of the “fiscal cliff” closely, including 44% who are following very closely.