Poll: Americans oppose Republican tax plan by 17-point margin

Morgan Whitaker
Updated ·1 min read

President Donald Trump has been extolling the virtues of the Republican tax plan, but according to a new poll, the American public doesn't love the plan.

A new ABC News/Washington Post survey found respondents oppose the plan by a margin of 17 points. A total of 50 percent of Americans reported opposing the plan, a a six point increase from September.

The survey found a significant party divide too. While 79 percent of Democrats oppose the bill, 75 percent of Republicans support it. But even self-described independent voters dislike the plan, with 52 percent opposing and 29 percent supporting it.

When asked to name the group the plan most benefits, 60 percent said it's a bonus for the wealthy, where 13 percent said it helped the middle class primarily and only 2 percent said the poor. Another 17 percent said it treated all fairly. By comparison, 26 percent of those polled thought the 2003 Bush tax plan treated all three groups -- the wealthy, the middle class and the poor -- equally.

House Republicans unveiled their tax code overhaul on Thursday, and the president has thrown his support behind the plan, asking a number of key aides to stay behind to help advocate for it while he travels to Asia over the two weeks.

SEE MORE: Ivanka Trump backs out of President Trump's Asia trip to focus on tax reform

Called the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”, the 429-page bill is the beginning of the GOP’s battle to rewrite the tax code for the first time in 30 years.