While Republicans and Democrats are often at odds over how to stimulate the economy, the results of a Gallup poll released on Wednesday showed that members of both parties are in favor of giving tax breaks to corporations that bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas.
Asking for opinions about five specific economic proposals, Gallup found that 89 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of Democrats support using tax breaks to spur "insourcing." Seventy-nine percent of Independents also support the proposal.
The poll also showed that large majorities of both Republicans and Democrats support pressuring China to allow fairer trade.
On the other hand, Republicans and Democrats are sharply divided about raising taxes on wealthy Americans, increasing government spending on the development of alternative energy sources, and increasing government spending on education and training for the long-term unemployed.
Vast majorities of Democrats support all three proposals, while just 41 percent of Republicans support raising taxes on the wealthy, 46 percent support increased spending on alternative energy, and 54 percent support increased spending to help the long-term unemployed.
The poll found that a majority of Independents support the proposals, with the strongest level of support shown for increasing spending on education and training for the long-term unemployed.
When the three groups are combined, the poll shows that a majority of Americans support all five proposals. The tax breaks to support "insourcing" and increasing spending to help the long-term unemployed have the strongest levels of support.
Lymari Morales, Managing News Editor of Gallup.com, said, "Politically, the challenge for President Barack Obama and members of Congress is balancing Americans' concerns about the role and size of government with their concerns about jobs."
"These Gallup data make it clear that Americans are more likely to favor federal government action that addresses their top economic concern, jobs and unemployment," she added. "Proposals on less top-of-mind concerns are not quite as popular."
The survey of 1,008 adults was conducted on January 23rd and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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