New ABC-WP Poll: Most Americans Want to Raise Taxes on Wealthy to Avoid Fiscal Cliff

Most Americans favor President Obama's plan to raise taxes on incomes over $250,000 a year, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

In the survey, 60 percent of respondents said they support increasing the taxes of people making more than a quarter of a million dollars, while 37 percent opposed the idea.

Not surprising, Democrats favored the measure more--73 percent supporting to 26 percent opposing. A majority of Republicans actually opposed the idea, with only 39 percent in favor and 59 percent against.

In an interesting result, there is almost no difference in support for the measure between men and women. In fact, slightly more men-61 percent-support raising taxes on the wealthy, compared to 60 percent of women.

In the same way, support for raising taxes is actually higher among whites--61 percent--than nonwhites, with 58 percent supporting.

And while a majority of Americans in every age bracket support raising taxes on the wealthy, the lowest levels of support are among younger Americans, 18 to 39-year old, who support the measure 57 percent to 39 percent. Respondents older than 39 favor the measure--62 percent of them.

More educated voters favored the measure at higher rates, with the most highly-educated favoring it at the highest rates.

The income distribution was completely flipped from the education results, with the wealthiest respondents supporting the measure the least. However, a majority of respondents in every income bracket supported raising taxes.

The most telling thing about this poll is how much the results differ from the results of the presidential election. Obama won the popular vote by about 3 percent, which means that many, many people who voted for Mitt Romney now support raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 a year, something Romney was adamantly against.

Romney also won the male vote and the white vote, but both those demographics actually have the highest support for the tax hikes.

That could mean several things. Many people could have changed their minds about their opposition to raising taxes in the three weeks since the election. Even with Obama's public relations push, that's unlikely.

Perhaps many people who voted for Romney did so despite his opposition to the tax hikes, which seems more probable.

But I think we glean more information by looking specifically at the one demographic that doesn't support raising taxes: conservative Republicans. Of all the groups surveyed, only self-identified Republicans didn't support the measure, and by a wide margin--20 points.

So it looks like there is a small but relatively diverse percentage of the public that is adamantly opposed to tax hikes, and it includes women, minorities and young people, not just old white men.

And it's not libertarians, since they mostly identify as independents, a group that supports raising taxes by 30 points.

Consider that the only other group to oppose raising taxes on the wealthy is, in fact, the wealthy, and we get a good glimpse of who is actually opposed to the measure: rich conservatives Republicans.