Guess Who Likes the Buffett Rule?

Republican leaders have been directing intense fire at Barack Obama's plan to raise taxes on the richest Americans, including on millionaires and billionaires who now pay a relatively low rate on income from capital gains and dividends.

As it happens, though, rank-and-file Republicans think that Obama's proposals make a lot of sense. That's the finding of a poll released last week, funded by the SEIU and Daily Kos.

The poll asked the following question: "Do you support or oppose ensuring that people who make over a million dollars a year pay the same percentage of taxes or more on their total income as those who make less than a million dollars a year?"

A strong 66 percent of Republicans said yes and 61 percent of self-described conservatives. The Buffett Rule won even higher support among independents and Democrats, with 73 percent and 78 percent backing it respectively.

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg poll last week specifically of financial investors and traders -- some of whom probably earn over than a $1 million a year or think they may some day -- found that four of ten of respondents in the U.S. backed the Buffett Rule.

Taxing the rich may not be popular with the GOP's ideologically driven leaders, but it's popular with everyone else -- including Republican voters.