Ahead of GOP Tax Fight, Republican Voters Increasingly Want to See the Rich Pay More

As Republicans in Congress work to advance the extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law via the partisan reconciliation process, their own party’s voters increasingly back taxing the rich.

And though sentiment hasn’t shifted much against corporations in recent years, most Americans across the political spectrum think big businesses pay too little in taxes too, as voters continue to show support for the president’s more populist proposals to eliminate taxes on things such as tipped income and Social Security benefits.

Soaking the rich is increasingly bipartisan

According to Morning Consult’s latest surveys, majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans think corporations should pay higher taxes, in line with our findings when we tested this question back in 2019 as the Democratic primary to take on Trump in 2020 was kicking into gear. But since then, there’s been modest growth in support for taxing the richest individuals — driven largely by the right side of the aisle.

Our April 11-13 survey found 70% of Republicans agreed with the statement that “the wealthiest Americans should pay higher taxes,” up from 62% six years ago. Over the same time period, the shares of Democrats (90%) and independents (76%) who agreed stayed largely in line with our previous findings.

Whether corporations and the wealthiest Americans should pay higher taxes — and whether they’re currently paying too little — are different questions. But in the case of higher earners, we see a similar partisan trend emerging, with Republicans and Democrats becoming less polarized on the topic.

Compared with 2019, the share of Democrats who think the wealthy are paying too little has dropped (from 78% to 71%), while the share of Republicans who say the same has increased (from 46% to 51%), underlining some of the broader coalitional shifts experienced by the two parties in recent years.

Support for specific tax proposals

Beyond the larger conceptual questions about taxes, large shares of voters, including Republicans, are on board with proposals to make the rich pay more and eliminate levies on things that are more likely to benefit lower earners.

Roughly 7 in 10 voters, including 2 in 3 Republicans, support proposals to raise taxes on earners making more than $400,000 (roughly in the middle of 2024’s highest tax bracket), in line with former President Joe Biden’s 2021 pledge. 

A nearly identical share of Republicans support raising taxes charged on income above $609,351, which is in the highest bracket, as floated by White House officials to Axios as part of a way to pay for the tax cut on tips, along with strong majorities of Democrats and independent voters. 

These two policies are more popular, as we found in February, than raising the corporate tax rate, which Trump is yet to rule out, though that has majority support from 54% of all voters and is backed by more Republican voters than not. 

On the other side of the equation, 71% of voters, along with 82% of Republicans, would eliminate federal income taxes on Social Security benefits, while more than 3 in 5 back another Trump proposal to eliminate federal levies on tipped income, a proposal that has more Republican than Democratic backing despite former Vice President Kamala Harris’ embrace of it during last year’s campaign. 

The bottom line

While Republican voters look to be on board with hiking taxes on the rich and cutting those that would lessen the burden on lower earners, it isn’t clear that lawmakers on Capitol Hill are. 

While the White House appears willing to at least seriously consider raising taxes to help pay for some of Trump's expensive proposals on Social Security benefits or tipped income, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are under pressure from their right flank to at least consider spending cuts, something that’s already dividing lawmakers on Capitol Hill as they grapple with big early shifts in voters' trust to handle a range of issues.

As Trump’s posture has created an environment that has decimated voter confidence in the GOP’s handling of the economy and trade, so too has their faith in his party to deal with taxes: More voters are likely to disapprove than approve of Trump, and to trust Democrats over Republicans, to handle the matter.

For businesses hoping the tax matter will be unifying for the GOP, and that corporate advantages will be easy to obtain, all of this data suggests the political energy of the electorate is heading in the opposite direction, setting up a potential foil for a president who’s already proven he’s willing to toy with corporations’ bottom lines in service of his political goals.