The big news out of Monday's new CNN/ORC poll is that Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by five percentage points nationally, 47 to 42, in a four-way race following the first presidential debate last week, including significant gains with men and independent voters. But also contained within the new survey is some timely information concerning how voters feel about paying taxes. Amid news that Trump may have avoided paying any income taxes for nearly two decades following a $916 million loss in 1995, the CNN/ORC poll found that 86 percent of registered voters surveyed viewed paying taxes as a “civic duty.” Among Trump supporters, that number was only slightly lower at 79 percent. A mere 12 percent of Americans polled said paying taxes to be an “unnecessary burden to be avoided.” Trump’s surrogates have referred to him as a “genius” for finding a way out of paying taxes on his income.
