Taxes due Monday; Gallup asks: are taxes fair?

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    Tax fairness is the topic. NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller talks taxes in his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in American opinion.

    Fifty-seven percent of Americans , more than in any year since 2001, now say they pay too much federal income tax. Naturally, Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to think they pay too much, and the gap widened this year, according to the Gallup Survey.

    Americans are also more likely to say the taxes they pay are unfair.  47 percent say their tax bill is unfair. That’s the closest to 50 percent that Gallup has measured since 1999, when an all-time high of 49 percent felt that way.

    This year’s number is an increase of seven points from last year’s 40 percent, and 13 points from ten years ago.

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    The wealth distribution factor

    More generally, a clear majority of Americans agree with the concept that money and wealth in this country should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people.

    Despite this shift in views on taxes, the issue is not high on the list in this month’s update on the most important problem facing the country. Instead, the top problems as perceived by the people are the usual suspects: the economy, and dysfunctional government.

    58 percent of Americans are positive about unions, but only 12 percent of workers are union members.

    The visit to Hiroshima 

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Hiroshima this week. As of 11 years ago, most Americans still support the decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Back in 1945, just after it occurred, 85 percent supported the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

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