A new poll, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for the SEIU, should be enough to convince wavering Dems that having the fight to let tax cuts for the wealthy expire will be well worth it.
In seven critical battleground states (California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin) they found strong support for letting the tax cuts expire.
A strong majority in every state polled favors a proposal that replaces tax cuts for those making MORE than $250,000 a year with "lower income taxes for families that make less than 250 thousand dollars a year and provide a series of additional tax cuts and credits to help middle class families pay for child care, save for their kids' college, or afford to buy a home." The plan is also wildly popular with independents. Support is also strong at the $1m threshold.
Greg Sargent has some quick analysis:
In seven core battleground states, a big majority, 62 percent, favor extending the middle class tax cuts while letting the high end cuts expire. That's exactly what Dems are mulling a vote on.
But the rest of the poll, which I obtained from the SEIU, is equally striking, and builds the case for this vote very effectively. Here are the other key findings from the survey, which was conducted by the Dem firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner:
* A majority of voters in these seven battleground states reject a core argument in favor of the Bush tax cuts: The idea that the cuts for everyone helped the economy. The poll finds that a majority think the Bush tax cuts either made no difference (26 percent) or hurt the economy (27 percent). That's a total of 53 percent.
While 39 percent think the tax cuts helped, two-thirds of those are Republicans -- who likely wouldn't vote for Dems in any case.
* The poll tested competing messages about how letting the middle class tax cuts expire would impact small business, and found that the Dem argument wins. A plurality (49 percent) believe the argument that letting them expire will benefit nearly all small businesses, while only a third (33 percent) believe the argument from opponents that it would hurt small businesses....
Paul Begala, an adviser to the SEIU, is going to try to get Congressional Dems to focus on these numbers, I'm told. "At a time when Democrats are facing tough races all across the country, defending middle-class tax cuts while Republicans hold them hostage for tax cuts for those making over $250,000 a year is a winning issue for them," Begala said in a statement emailed my way. "This is the fight Democrats need."
Every poll, all of the evidence to date shows that there is no downside to having this fight with Republicans. What Greg says, "Dems: Hold. The. Damn. Vote."