About two-thirds of Americans say the presidential election results gave President Barack Obama a mandate to raise taxes on the wealthy, according to a new survey released Wednesday.

A Bloomberg News national poll finds that 65 percent of those surveyed -- including 45 percent of Republicans -- say that Obama campaigned, ran and won on his pledge to raise taxes on those making more than 250,000 dollars a year.

But almost the same number of Americans -- 64 percent -- say that Obama also has a mandate to protect popular entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Those results indicate the public give Obama a mandate on his tax proposal, while making it clear that the public is deeply opposed to any entitlement reforms that might be part of a deal over taxes and spending between the Republicans and the Obama administration.

The White House is negotiating with House GOP on the deal, but the two sides are yet to make major progress over how to prevent tax increases for all Americans and automatic spending cuts set to kick in next year. Endit

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