Ryan Streeter
Good news for reformers: grassroots conservatives are ready to play hardball on tax reform.
This week, we asked our Republican Panel, a group of self-identified conservative Republicans, about their views on tax reform. Specifically, we asked if they would be willing to give up their deductions and exemptions (including the mortgage interest deduction) in the tax code for lower rates. This kind of tax reform is at the heart of the Ryan budget, as well as other conservative approaches to deficit reduction.
Here is how they responded:
Many are talking today about tax reform. Do you support lowering tax rates but eliminating most deductions and exemptions in the tax code, including the mortgage interest deduction?
- 50% - yes
- 34% - no
- 17% - I don't know
Fifty percent support for fundamental tax reform among conservatives is a good start.
Next, we gauged enthusiasm for the Ryan budget. Currently, GOP members are taking a lot of heat back home for the budget’s proposed reforms to Medicare. Those who voted for the budget (all but four House Republicans) should take heart from our poll: enthusiasm for the budget is high. A plurality of respondents are more excited now about the budget than when it was released.
Are you more or less excited about Paul Ryan’s budget since he released it?
- 41% - more excited
- 31% - just as excited now as I was then
- 10% - I wasn't excited then and am not excited now
- 10% - I don't know
- 7% - less excited
The Republican Panel is comprised of conservatives who place a premium on spending cuts. They have not, to date, been especially enthusiastic about entitlement reform as a solution to the deficit, and yet they are widely supportive of the Ryan budget – which contains significant Medicare reforms.
The appetite for change among Republicans is significant and should provide encouragement for the Ryan-esque reformers in the GOP.
The current poll was conducted with 775 members of the Republican Panel, assembled by YouGov, between April 21-25, 2011.