Most Americans say rich people do not pay enough in taxes: Gallup

Six in 10 Americans believe that wealthy Americans pay too little in taxes, according to a Gallup poll released Friday.

The April 6-10 poll was conducted during a presidential election year in which taxes have been a major area of focus for the candidates.

Americans' attitudes on whether upper-income Americans pay too little in taxes are split along political lines. Three-quarters of Democrats say the rich pay too little, compared with less than half of Republicans, Gallup found.

Americans are generally on board -- as they consistently have been in recent decades -- with the concept that wealth and income should be distributed more equally in the United States. Americans also tend to agree that upper-income Americans pay too little in taxes and that the rich should be more heavily taxed in order to achieve a more even distribution of wealth.

These attitudes are divided along partisan lines, with wide gaps in opinion between Republicans and Democrats, reflecting the starkly different positions of the two parties' presidential candidates on this issue, Gallup found.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders has made income inequality a centerpiece of his campaign, saying the issue of wealth and income inequality is the "great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time."

Sanders has called for "higher income tax rates for the richest Americans," while Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton also has called for the need to "reform our tax code so the wealthiest pay their fair share."

Sanders' focus on income inequality in his campaign clearly strikes a highly responsive chord with his own partisans, although Democrats interviewed in this survey who support Clinton for their party's nomination are little different on these measures from those who support Sanders.

By sharp contrast, Republicans have called for simplified tax plans, which will end up reducing the income taxes all Americans pay.

Republican candidates Senator Ted Cruz and front-runner Donald Trump may find a similarly responsive chord among their partisans for their "lower all taxes" positions, with again little difference between Republicans who support one or the other for their party's nomination, Gallup said.

Inequality does not show up as an extremely high priority when Americans are asked about campaign issues, and relatively few Americans mention inequality or taxes more generally as the most important problem facing the nation today. Endit