According to a new Rasmussen report 54% of U.S. voters favor a middle class tax cut instead of new health care spending.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say tax cuts for the middle class are more important than new spending for health care reform, even as President Obama’s top economic advisers signal that tax hikes may be necessary.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken Monday and Tuesday nights, finds that 34% disagree and say new spending for health care reform is more important. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.

It is important to note that this question asked about new government spending for health care reform rather than about the overall concept of health care reform itself.

The partisan and ideological divide on the question is sizable. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Democrats say new spending for health care reform is the priority. But 80% of Republicans and 62% of voters not affiliated with either party favor tax cuts for the middle class.

Seventy percent (70%) of liberals say new spending is more important, while 76% of conservatives prefer tax cuts.

Recent polling shows that 48% of voters now rate the U.S. health care system as good or excellent. That figure has increased significantly since the Congressional debate on health care began.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of all voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that taxes will have to be raised on the middle class to cover the cost of health care reform. Fifty-nine percent (59%) say it is very likely.

Just 18% say middle class tax hikes are not likely, with 14% who say they’re not very likely and four percent (4%) who think they are not at all likely.

These numbers are largely unchanged from a survey in mid-July. But on Sunday Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, both refused to rule out the possibility of middle-class tax increases to pay for the health care reform plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats.

Voters ages 18 to 29 are evenly divided over which is more important – tax cuts or new spending on health care reform – while those in all other age groups overwhelmingly prefer cutting taxes for the middle class. This younger age group also is by far the one that least expects a middle class tax hike to pay for health care reform.

While 88% of Republicans and 67% of unaffiliated voters say middle-class tax hikes are very likely, just 29% of Democrats agree.

Only 15% of voters nationwide now say Obama has cut taxes for 95% of Americans as he repeatedly promised to do on the campaign trail, down 11 points from early June. Forty-nine percent (49%) say the president has not cut taxes for most Americans, and 36% are not sure.

Democrats are far less skeptical about this than Republican voters and unaffiliateds.

Forty-one percent (41%) of voters now expect their personal taxes to go up under the Obama administration. Eleven percent (11%) say they will go down, and 34% think they will stay the same.
Just 16% of voters believe that tax increases help the economy. Most voters (54%) say tax increases hurt the economy, a number that has been fairly consistent for more than a decade.

Only 28% say they are willing to pay higher taxes so that all Americans can have health insurance. Sixty percent (60%) are opposed. Those figures are little changed since May.
Recent polling has shown that cost, not universal coverage, is the top concern about health care.

Americans are fairly evenly divided on the health care reform proposals working their way through Congress, but most remain convinced that the plans will raise costs and hurt the quality of the care they receive.

So did anyone actually expect Obama to keep his pledge of no taxes on the middle class?  Especially since he has already raised taxes on items like cigarettes and don’t forget the hidden tax for all the money GM and the banks have received.  Well now he’s saying that he will “possibly” have to raise taxes on the middle-class…imagine that?

From Fox News:  President Obama may have to break his campaign pledge and raise taxes on middle-class Americans to pay for public health care and the growing deficit, an eventuality that administration officials touched lightly on Sunday as they promoted an economy emerging from recession.

With an expected deficit next year of $1.8 trillion, and spending still being planned for a $1 trillion, 10-year health care reform, officials say something will have to be done to prevent further erosion of the economy.

“We will not get this economy back on track, recovery will be not strong and sustained, unless we … can convince the American people that we’re going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Asked point blank whether it was right to suggest it is a matter of when, not if, taxes will be raised, Geithner responded, “It is absolutely right.”

Read the full story here. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/02/obama-officials-end-recession-near/