Huffington Post, Rasmussen Poll on Bush Tax Cuts Is Just One of Many, by Mark Blumenthal:

"The people speak: Keep the Bush Tax Cuts." So reads the headline in today's New York Post. Really? …

The survey is an automated, recorded-voice telephone poll of 1,000 "likely voters" conducted August 1-2, 2010 conducted by Rasmussen Reports. Here are the results of the two questions highlighted by the Post article:

Should the Bush Administration tax cuts be extended or should the tax cuts end this year?

54% Tax cuts should be extended
30% Tax cuts should end this year
16% Not sure

Suppose you had a choice between extending the Bush Administration tax cuts for all Americans or extending the Bush Administration tax cuts for everyone except the wealthy. Which would you prefer?

48% Extending the Bush Administration tax cuts for all Americans
40% Extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone except the wealthy
12% Not sure…

Now compare the Rasmussen results to two similar questions asked in recent weeks (via the Polling Report).

First, a survey of 900 registered voters conducted July 27-28, 2010 by Fox News and Opinion Dynamics:

As you may know, a series of tax cuts that were passed at the beginning of former President George W. Bush's term are set to expire this year. If you were president, would you continue the tax cuts for everyone, continue the tax cuts for everyone except families earning more than $250,000 dollars a year, or allow the tax cuts to expire and let taxes go back up to their previous level?

44% Continue for everyone 36% Continue for those under $250,000
14% Allow to expire
6% Unsure

Next, consider a similar question posed by a Pew Research/National Journal Congressional Connection poll of 1,004 adults conducted July 22-25, 2010:

Which comes closer to your view about the tax cuts passed when George W. Bush was president? All of the tax cuts should remain in place. Tax cuts for the wealthy should be repealed, while others stay in place. All of the tax cuts should be repealed.

30% Keep all the tax cuts
27% Repeal the tax cuts for the wealthy
31% Repeal all the tax cuts
12% Unsure

So the Rasmussen story shows more likely voters prefer to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone rather than letting them expire for the wealthy, while the Fox and Pew Research surveys show plurality or majority support for letting the Bush tax cuts expire entirely or only for the wealthy.

(Hat Tip: Ann Murphy.)