Republicans Want to Tax Big Corporations

Despite being known as the party of lower taxes, a majority of Republicans support raising taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.

In a new Navigator survey, 63 percent of Republicans supported raising taxes on both groups, with just 30 percent saying they were opposed to the measures. Ninety-four percent of Democrats supported the tax hikes.

Overall, 79 percent of Americans surveyed supported raising taxes on the rich and mega corporations.

While the Republican number may have been higher than some expected, there was a noted difference between Republicans who regularly watch Fox News and those who do not.

The Fox fans supported raising taxes only 54 percent of the time, while 70 percent of other Republicans said they favored higher taxes.

Support for former President Donald Trump—the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination—did not appear to make a significant impact on Republicans' views of higher taxes on the rich, as 63 percent of those who voted for Trump in 2020 said they'd be in favor of the increases.

Across the board, Americans expressed concern that Republicans in Congress passed a tax plan favoring the wealthy and big business over low-income and middle-class Americans.

The study found that three in four Americans are concerned that "Republicans in Congress passed a tax plan that gave record-breaking tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and biggest corporations but would result in cuts to programs that people count on like Social Security and Medicare." Meanwhile, 58 percent of Americans said they were "very concerned."

William Hall, a political science and business professor at Webster University, said in analyzing the data that it's important to keep in mind that the voters who currently identify as Republicans are significantly different from those who supported the Republican Party in generations past, especially in terms of socioeconomic status.

"The net result of this substantial change in profile of Republicans, is therefore also a very substantial shift in a number of preferences, including in the areas of greater support for raising taxes on large corporations, something that previously would be unthinkable for more traditional Republicans in the past," Hall told Newsweek.

In part, today's economy, which still has a 3.1 percent inflation rate and a shrinking middle class, may be to blame for the shifting tax views of Republicans. So while there might be a basic agreement between the majority of Republicans and Democrats on taxing big business and the wealthy, they may be motivated by different reasons, Hall said.

"Motivations for raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy by contemporary Republicans could reasonably be based on the fact that the profile of its current members has changed significantly, increasingly representing a profile and therefore a political position far more supportive of these changes," Hall said, adding that Democrats have long been supportive of high taxes on the rich.

From 1971 to 2021, the share of Americans living in middle-class households declined from 61 percent to just 50 percent, a recent Pew Research Center report found.

Paul Walker, a finance expert who wrote A Money Book Anyone Can Read, said many Republicans now believe Ronald Reagan's and Trump's tax cuts are responsible for the $34 trillion deficit the United States faces.

However, he believes this view ignores how stimulus payments have affected the larger economy and its inflation and debt situation.

"The irony is that the Inflation Reduction Act and The American Rescue Plan are the main cause of the spike in the debt," Walker said. "A government cannot spend its way out of inflation and yet these programs added trillions to our debt, but the Republicans are accused of giving money to the rich. It reminds me of selling candy as breakfast to gullible children."