Poll: GOP and Dems Favor Alt-Fuel Bill
Source: Politics Daily (2/2/11)
"Poll finds 83% favor bill providing incentives to develop alt energy."
Now that Republicans control the House while Democrats still hold the Senate, what issues might both parties jointly address?
Two actions on which there is a good amount of bipartisan agreement would be to pass a bill providing incentives to develop alternative energy and an overhaul of the tax code, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Jan. 14–16.
Gallup asked those surveyed about eight possible actions Congress could take this year (although, for some reason, the list did not include health care reform or efforts to repeal it).
The five actions that got majority support were doing something to encourage alternative energy solutions (83%), revamping the tax code (76%), speeding up the withdrawal from Afghanistan (72%), passing an energy bill expanding drilling and exploration for oil and gas (65%) and approving a free-trade agreement with South Korea (53%).
When it comes to how the results play out along partisan lines, the action where the results were the most similar was for overhauling the federal tax code, with support for that in the mid- to high-70s for Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.
There's not as much agreement on passing an alternative energy bill, but it still gets decisive majorities across the political board: 93% of Democrats favor action on this issue, compared to 82% of independents and 75% of Republicans.
The complication, of course, is that major energy legislation tends to be tied to other more contentious proposals, as cap and trade was last year. If a proposal for encouraging alternative energy was part of such a bigger bill, the other issues could sink it.
Two actions on which there is a good amount of bipartisan agreement would be to pass a bill providing incentives to develop alternative energy and an overhaul of the tax code, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Jan. 14–16.
Gallup asked those surveyed about eight possible actions Congress could take this year (although, for some reason, the list did not include health care reform or efforts to repeal it).
The five actions that got majority support were doing something to encourage alternative energy solutions (83%), revamping the tax code (76%), speeding up the withdrawal from Afghanistan (72%), passing an energy bill expanding drilling and exploration for oil and gas (65%) and approving a free-trade agreement with South Korea (53%).
When it comes to how the results play out along partisan lines, the action where the results were the most similar was for overhauling the federal tax code, with support for that in the mid- to high-70s for Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.
There's not as much agreement on passing an alternative energy bill, but it still gets decisive majorities across the political board: 93% of Democrats favor action on this issue, compared to 82% of independents and 75% of Republicans.
The complication, of course, is that major energy legislation tends to be tied to other more contentious proposals, as cap and trade was last year. If a proposal for encouraging alternative energy was part of such a bigger bill, the other issues could sink it.