WASHINGTON _ Despite the enthusiasm for overhauling the tax code among Republican congressional leaders and President Donald Trump, the public is hardly sold that the effort is a priority or on the possible benefits.
Nearly one-third of U.S. adults surveyed in this week's Economist/YouGov poll strongly oppose the GOP tax framework released last week, and nearly the same amount believe their own taxes would stay the same under the plan.
The web-based interviews of 1,500 people was conducted between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3 and has a 3-point error margin. It shows 26 percent of those surveyed were "not sure" what to make of the GOP's efforts to rewrite the tax code. Only 15 percent responded they supported it strongly.
Twenty-five percent said they believed their taxes would increase under the plan with the same percentage saying they did not know how it would affect them.
Those surveyed were almost equally split over four ways about whether poor people's taxes will increase, decrease or stay the same under the proposal, which is still in development. The same amount, about 25 percent, said they were not sure.
Twenty-nine percent believed taxes would increase for the poor but 20 percent believed it would decrease under the plan. Twenty-five percent said they would stay the same or were not sure.
Nearly half of those surveyed said they believed rich people's taxes would decrease while only 15 percent said it would increase for the wealthy.
When it came to aspects of the plan, which House and Senate tax writers are still writing, none of the proposals under discussion merit a support of the majority.
Nearly 45 percent of those surveyed favored doubling the standard reduction; 41 percent favored eliminating the estate tax.
Further down the line of support, only 35 percent favored reducing the number of individual tax brackets from seven to three, and only 34 percent favored lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent.
Only 22 percent favored eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes.
When it comes to Trump's own taxes, 39 percent believed the real estate mogul's taxes would decrease under his own proposal, with nearly 20 percent believing it would either stay the same or increase.
Thirty-two percent of those surveyed described their own political viewpoint as conservative with 27 percent equally split between liberal and moderate.
Nineteen percent of respondents considered themselves to be independent.
The poll has a 3 percent margin of error. Respondents are chosen by YouGov's opt-in internet panel.
The Republican-led tax overhaul revealed last week suggests cutting tax rates 20 percent for corporations, 25 percent for small businesses and 35 percent for high-income individuals.
