The $1.5 trillion Republican tax bill is increasingly unpopular as it nears passage

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 19 December 2017

Republicans plan to pass their $1.5 trillion tax plan starting Tuesday, with the House approving the bill first and the Senate clearing it later in the day or on Wednesday. No Democrats are expected to vote in favor. The tax bill would be the first big legislative win for Republicans this year. It slashes the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, lowers the top rate for the richest Americans, and gives more modest, temporary tax cuts to everyone else. By 2023, families making under $30,000 would start seeing tax increases, the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation said Monday, and by 2027, average taxes would go up for everyone earning up to $75,000. The bill is projected to add $1.46 trillion to the deficit over those same 10 years.

In a new CNN poll, 55 percent of U.S. adults oppose the tax bill while 33 percent support it, a 10-point deterioration in support from early November.

The bill's unpopularity is largely due to the perceived winners and losers in the package; 66 percent said it will do more to help the wealthy than the middle class, 37 percent said their own family would be worse off under the bill, and only 21 percent say they would be better off. The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS Dec. 14-17 among 1,001 adults, and it has a margin of sampling error of ±3.8 percentage points.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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