A tax cuts and unemployment benefits bill that is making its way through Congress has the support of half of Americans, a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll has found.
Of Americans, one in every two (49 percent), which is a plurality but not a majority, approves of the deal, while one in three opposes it and a fifth say they don’t know. USA TODAY/Gallup phoned 1,019 American adults. The poll has a margin of error of +/— four percentage points.
The bill, officially called the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, would extend Bush-era tax cuts as well as unemployment insurance benefits, which both faced expiration this winter.
President Obama announced a deal with Republicans earlier this month, reaching a compromise to extend the tax cuts. Extending the Bush era tax cuts is unpopular with Democrats, who worry an extension, which would prolong income tax cuts to the rich, could worsen the deficit. Extending unemployment benefits is unpopular with Republicans, who fear the payments to jobless people could prolong unemployment.
More Republicans than Democrats support the deal, however, with 57 percent of Republican respondents saying they approved while only 48 percent of Democrats, and 44 percent of Independents, said the same.
However, despite tepid support for the bill, 51 percent of Americans said they were more pessimistic about the government working effectively for the people, compared with 20 percent who were more optimistic.
In a separate poll by Gallup last week, the two individual parts of the bill, the unemployment payment extension and the tax cuts extension, were found to be overwhelmingly popular.
Nearly the same amounts of Americans — two-thirds — supported each portion of the bill.
Of Americans, one in every two (49 percent), which is a plurality but not a majority, approves of the deal, while one in three opposes it and a fifth say they don’t know. USA TODAY/Gallup phoned 1,019 American adults. The poll has a margin of error of +/— four percentage points.
The bill, officially called the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, would extend Bush-era tax cuts as well as unemployment insurance benefits, which both faced expiration this winter.
President Obama announced a deal with Republicans earlier this month, reaching a compromise to extend the tax cuts. Extending the Bush era tax cuts is unpopular with Democrats, who worry an extension, which would prolong income tax cuts to the rich, could worsen the deficit. Extending unemployment benefits is unpopular with Republicans, who fear the payments to jobless people could prolong unemployment.
More Republicans than Democrats support the deal, however, with 57 percent of Republican respondents saying they approved while only 48 percent of Democrats, and 44 percent of Independents, said the same.
However, despite tepid support for the bill, 51 percent of Americans said they were more pessimistic about the government working effectively for the people, compared with 20 percent who were more optimistic.
In a separate poll by Gallup last week, the two individual parts of the bill, the unemployment payment extension and the tax cuts extension, were found to be overwhelmingly popular.
Nearly the same amounts of Americans — two-thirds — supported each portion of the bill.
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