A wide majority of Americans think President Barack Obama has a "mandate" Barack Obama a wide "mandate" to increase taxes on incomes above $250,000, including nearly half of Republicans, according to a new Bloomberg poll released Wednesday.

The poll found that 65 percent of all respondents — including 45 percent of Republicans — said that Obama has a mandate to increase taxes "because he won re-election." But 53 percent of Republicans said he did not have that mandate.

The expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts are a key component of any deal to avert the so-called "fiscal cliff." Obama wants tax rates to rise on the top 2 percent of incomes. Republicans want the tax cuts extended for all income groups and prefer to raise revenue by cutting loopholes and capping deductions in the tax code.

In pretty much all of the public polling conducted on the fiscal cliff, voters have sided with the President on the issue. Obama's approval rating on handling negotiations far outpaces that of House Speaker John Boehner and Congressional Republicans.

The Bloomberg poll also found that most voters think Obama has a "mandate" on two other items relating to the fiscal cliff — "protecting Medicare from fundamental change" and "protecting Social Security from substantial budget cuts."

Despite Obama's recent efforts to reach out to the business community for input on the cliff, 33 percent of voters still say he is "too anti-business." But a majority — 54 percent — said he has "about the right balance" between being pro- and anti-business.