No link – Progressive Taxes already incorporated into Biden’s strategy and are popular

Calls for higher taxes for those at the top end of the income and wealth spectrum were a major part of President Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. The administration's interest in raising taxes on the rich has continued since Biden took office, including the recently proposed Billionaire Minimum Income Tax law that would require the wealthiest American households to pay a minimum of 20% on all of their income.

But the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act passed by the Senate and about to be passed by the House and signed into law by the president ended up with no direct change in tax rates for rich Americans -- or any Americans for that matter. As a report in The Hill noted, the new legislation "leaves out most of President Biden's proposals to pull in greater government revenues from rich taxpayers. Increases in individual income tax rates for high earners, increases in the estate tax, increased taxes on capital gains like stock and property holdings, a tax on billionaires, a plan to build out the net investment income tax and a surtax on high-income households are plans that have been scrapped from the Inflation Reduction Act.

" Some of the new law's provisions will no doubt affect the taxes of the rich (and other taxpayers) indirectly. For one thing, the law provided billions in new funding for the IRS. This, in turn, will lead to more frequent and stringent audits that can ultimately result in higher taxes. Additionally, increased taxes on corporations may affect those with stock ownership. These tend to be higher-income individuals, although average workers' 401(k) plans and pay raises could also be affected. And other corporate entities affected by the bill claim their increased tax burdens will be passed on to taxpayers.

But overall, rich taxpayers, for the most part, were spared the specific or direct increases in taxes initially envisioned by Democratic leaders.

The average American, on the other hand, would not have minded if the law had increased taxes on the rich. Americans tend to be more likely than not to favor higher taxes on those with high incomes. This fact of life has been well-established across a wide variety of public opinion indicators over the years.

As a case in point, Gallup just updated a classic question asking about taxes on the rich: This question was first asked by Fortune back in 1939 -- at the tail end of the depression. At that point, there were record rates of unemployment and poverty. One might suppose that Americans would have been very happy to agree that the rich should be heavily taxed. But they actually weren't. In that 1939 poll, despite the challenging economic conditions, just 35% of Americans approved of the idea, while 54% disapproved. When Gallup asked the question again in 1998, a slim majority of 51% disapproved.

In the nine times the question has been asked since then, positive reactions to this idea of "heavy taxes on the rich" have been generally higher, although variable. In 2008 and 2011, the public disapproved by slight margins. But in surveys conducted in 2013, 2015, 2016 and in July of this year, slim majorities approved of the idea of heavy taxes on the rich in order to redistribute wealth. The latest results are 52% approve, 47% disapprove.

In short, the question confirms the well-documented finding noted above. Americans tend to agree with the idea that those with more money should pay even more in taxes than they do now.

Attitudes on Taxing the Rich Vary by Partisanship, Question Wording As is often the case, American public opinion on taxing the rich varies depending on how the policy is explained. And it is not constant across all population segments.

For one thing, not surprisingly, Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to favor heavy taxes on the rich. This partisan gap has been significant and consistent over the years.

About seven in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents have supported heavier taxes on the rich each time the classic Gallup question has been asked since October 2008. That compares to a consistent third or less of Republicans. In July's update, 79% of Democrats support the idea of heavy taxes on the rich; 24% of Republicans agree. The partisan gap seen since October 2008 is slightly larger than it was in 2007 and April 2008.