The Economy

• 65% of Americans agree that the gap between the rich and everyone else has increased.
• 60% of Americans believe the economic system in this country unfairly favors the wealthy.
• 69% of Americans believe the government has a role in reducing the gap between the rich and everyone else.
• 54% of Americans favor raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations to expand programs for the poor
• 73% of Americans favor increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour.
  Pew Research and USA TODAY, Jan 23 2014
• Two out of three Americans are dissatisfied with the way income and wealth are distributed in the U.S., including 75% of Democrats, 54% of Republicans and 70% of independents. Gallup Economy Poll, Jan 20, 2014
• 71% of Americans believe that the minimum wage should be increased. Quinnipiac National Poll, Jan 8, 2014
• 58% of Americans believe Congress should extend unemployment benefits for three months. Quinnipiac National Poll, Jan 8, 2014
• 66% of Americans support raising the minimum wage given the arguments that the minimum wage helps low-income workers versus a higher minimum wage would cut the overall number of jobs. ABC News/Washington Post Poll: The Wealth Gap and the Minimum Wage
• 57% of Americans believe that policies should be enacted to lessen the gap between the wealthy and less well-off. ABC News/Washington Post Poll: The Wealth Gap and the Minimum Wage
• When asking Americans what they believe the minimum wage should be, the mean response was $9.41, and the median response was $9.00. ABC News/Washington Post Poll: The Wealth Gap and the Minimum Wage
• 59% of Americans believe that it is more important to keep spending for programs that help the poor and needy at current levels than to reduce the deficit. ABC News/Washington Post Poll: The Wealth Gap and the Minimum Wage
• 61% of seniors support extending unemployment insurance benefits. National Employment Law Project, Survey on Federal Unemployment Benefits, Dec. 26, 2013
• 55% of Americans believe that Congress should maintain federal unemployment insurance benefits rather than cut them off. National Employment Law Project, Survey on Federal Unemployment Benefits, Dec. 26, 2013
• 57% of Americans reject the idea that the unemployed would rather collect unemployment insurance payments than work, agreeing with the statement “the unemployed would rather work, but cannot find a job in today’s economy.” National Employment Law Project, Survey on Federal Unemployment Benefits, Dec. 26, 2013
• Cancelling unemployment insurance has an electoral price in key demographics, with 27% of women, 26% of seniors, 30% of Latinos and 31% of moderates saying that they would be less likely to vote a candidate that votes against extending unemployment insurance benefits.National Employment Law Project, Survey on Federal Unemployment Benefits, Dec. 26, 2013
• 64% believe creating jobs should be the president’s and Congress’s top priority; only 33 percent think the top priority should be deficit reduction.Morning Joe/Marist Poll. March 25-27, 2013.
• 79% favor a law to give tax incentives to bring jobs home.Gallup. March 20, 2013.
• 77% favor hiring people to do urgent infrastructure repairs. (Drops to 72% if the words “government spending” are used.)Gallup. March 20, 2013.
• 75% favor a government job-creation program to hire one million people. (Also drops to 72% if the words “government spending” are used.)Gallup. March 20, 2013.
• 49% prefer proposals to invest in infrastructure, education and alternative energy to create jobs, compared to 44% who believe tax cuts will generate business.Bloomberg/Selzer & Co. February 20, 2013.
• 51% said “Creating jobs and getting the economy going” is one if the three most important issues facing the country. Democracy Corps. November 9, 2012.
• 48% think the 2009 stimulus helped the economy a lot, compared to 14% who think it did nothing. United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll. September 7-9, 2012.