Potential fiscal cliff deal still being debated















As of this early Friday hour, there is no real sense of what comes next. All of this could change in the coming hours, with word of new talks, new proposals and renewed hope for a deal before Christmas or New Year’s Eve.

But for now, nothing.

Non-profits have been facing off with the White House over fiscal cliff negotiations, Jerry Markon and Peter Wallsten said.









But the general consensus among Americans is “to let the rich pay for it,” Aaron Blake said.

President Obama and House Republicans are still attempting to hammer out a deal on the so-called “fiscal cliff,” and the American people have one message for them:

Let rich people pay for it.

We’ve written for a while on this blog about how letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire is overwhelmingly popular.

But when it comes to other potential pieces of a “fiscal cliff” deal, that theme also holds true. Essentially all the popular ideas would have much more of an effect on rich people, while the ones that affect the country more equitably poll poorly (and often very poorly) basically without exception.

Besides raising taxes on the wealthy, other proposals that get majority support in a new Pew Research Center poll include reducing Medicare benefits for more wealthy recipients (51 percent support), reducing Social Security benefits for more wealthy recipients (51 percent), limiting tax deductions (54 percent), and raising the tax rate on investment income (52 percent).

(While deductions and investment income also affect the middle class, wealthy people tend to find and take more deductions — not to mention the middle class would be less affected by capping them — and rich people tend to have much more money invested.)

Meanwhile, no other proposal gets majority support, including reducing military spending (43 percent support), raising the eligibility age for Medicare (41 percent), raising the eligibility age for Social Security (42 percent), limiting the home mortgage interest deduction (41 percent), reducing federal funding for programs that help the poor (38 percent), reducing infrastructure spending (30 percent) and reducing education funding (21 percent).

Read what others are saying