Poll suggests broad support for tax deal

A strong majority of U.S. adults say they support the tax cuts deal brokered between President Obama and Republicans.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans said they support the agreement announced last week by the president that would extend all expiring tax cuts for two years, extend unemployment benefits for 13 months, allow for a one-year payroll tax holiday and increase the level of exemption from estate taxes, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found Monday.

Twenty-nine percent of Americans say they oppose the deal, while 2 percent had no opinion.

The poll is the first to test the popularity of the bill as it’s been crafted. Previous polling has suggested that individual elements of the compromise are popular, but no poll appears to have tested whether the legislation that ties those four elements together is popular on its own.

The survey comes as the Senate is set to vote this afternoon in a key procedural test for the legislation. The House might act later this week if the objections of some Democrats in that chamber are addressed.

Just 38 percent of Democrats said they backed extending tax cuts for all taxpayers, and only 37 percent of Democrats said they favored the payroll tax cut.

Interestingly, the only element of the deal that tests as unpopular on its own is the one-year cut in payroll taxes. Fifty-seven percent said they opposed the 2 percent cut next year in the taxes that fund Social Security. Just 39 percent said they favor the move.

The poll, conducted Dec. 9-12, has a 3.5 percent margin of error.