A new poll from The Economist and YouGov finds a sizable partisan divide in American’s perception of how the new tax law will affect their finances, with 67 percent of Democrats saying they expect to pay about the same or more in taxes and 67 percent of Republicans saying they expect to pay about the same or less.
The numbers can be seen as another indication of why the tax law has been a political dud — and how GOP messaging on the law has failed. The Tax Policy Center estimates that more than 80 percent of taxpayers will get a tax cut this year, while around 5 percent will see a tax increase.
On the other hand, the large share of respondents saying they expect to pay about the same might also be explained, at least in part, by the relatively small size of the tax cuts going to people at the bottom and middle of the income scale. The Tax Policy Center found that the average tax cut for the lowest fifth of earners would be $60 this year, while the middle fifth will get about $930, or less than $80 a month.
