Taxes are scheduled to increase next year due to the expiration of the Trump Tax Cuts of 2017. A budget bill currently being debated in Congress would preserve the current tax rates and deductions while adding new ones.
WHY IT MATTERS
The tax impact of the bill can be described several ways – and indeed, supporters of the bill have alternated between describing it as making the Trump tax cuts permanent, stopping a tax increase, and delivering the largest tax cut in American history.
HOW TO USE THIS DATA
We tested four different, accurate ways to describe the impact of the budget bill to see which is the most effective. We also tested three different, accurate ways to describe the impact of failing to pass the bill. Advocates should use these results as a guide.
Click on the image below to read the full report…or read the summary below.
Emphasize Middle and Working-Class Tax Cuts and Stopping a Tax Increase
- A budget bill that “keeps taxes the same as they are now for high earners while lowering them for the middle class, working class, families with children, and seniors” earns support from 70% of Americans. 67% also say such a bill would help people like them.
- Describing the budget bill as “delivering the largest tax cut in American history” is less effective – possibly because people assume many of the benefits will go to the rich.
- If advocates for the bill want to use the language of the “Trump Tax Cuts,” the bill should be described as making them permanent while delivering middle and working-class tax relief.
- A budget bill that “allows a tax increase scheduled for next year that would bet the largest in American history” earns the highest opposition (63%) and the highest perception that it “would hurt people like me” (62%).