https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/02/01/the-gops-big-tax-cut-gamble-appears-to-be-paying-dividends/A month ago Republicans passed what was, according to some measures, the most unpopular bill in decades: their tax plan.
Today, it’s looking more and more as if that was a risk well worth taking.
A day after President Trump played up the tax cuts in his State of the Union address, a Monmouth poll showed a huge swing in favor of the bill. Although 26 percent of Americans approved of the package in mid-December, as lawmakers were putting the final touches on it, support in the latest poll rose to 44 percent. For a bill that sometimes polled with twice as many opponents as supporters, it’s now on level terms, with just as many supporters as opponents (44 percent).
Other polls have shown smaller bumps in the plan’s popularity — a Washington Post-ABC News poll a couple of weeks back, for instance, showed support rising to 34 percent — but none until Wednesday had shown the law as drawing level. So it’s possible the Monmouth poll is an outlier.
But there are plenty of positive signs here for Republicans. And there are reasons to believe things could get better.
Unlike other polls, for instance, Monmouth’s question about the tax plan doesn’t tie it to Republicans or to Trump. That suggests partisanship and Trump fatigue may have depressed support while it was the subject of intense debate, and that people might warm to it as they judge it more on its merits.
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