Change Research did some polling on the Biden agenda:
For the last week, Republicans have been shedding crocodile tears to every overly credulous reporter in town about how Biden is violating his unity pledge by pushing his agenda. They called his executive orders “divisive” and his COVID Relief proposal “Radical Left.” The Republicans are wrong. Biden’s agenda is very popular. Our poll found that most of Biden’s top priorities are supported by at least 60 percent of registered voters. Levels of support above 60 percent are almost unheard of in such a highly polarized political environment. Biden’s agenda is supported by some voters who don’t even believe he is the legitimate winner of the election.
Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package is supported by 69 percent of voters. Even 39 percent of Trump voters support it.
Increasing the Federal Minimum Wage to $15 is supported by 55 percent of voters — including 17 percent of Trump voters.
The For the People Act, a political reform and democracy reform proposal, is backed by 65 percent of all voters and more than a third of Trump voters (irony is dead!).
Biden’s proposal to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt per person polls at 55-40. Notably, a plan pushed by some progressives to cancel up to $50,000 is almost as popular at 52-43.
The poll asked respondents to identify their priorities from a list of issues. The results were clear. Voters are laser focused on the current crisis. The top three issues were all COVID related – vaccine distribution, economic relief, and stopping the spread of the virus.
They also asked about costs. Dan Pfeiffer comments on that in his newsletter:
Republicans rediscovering their totally sincere concern for debt and deficits the minute Biden was sworn in as President was as predictable as the sunrise. After spending trillions on phenomenally ineffective corporate tax cuts and massive and unnecessary increases in defense spending, Republicans are now talking about pinching pennies on vaccine funding, unemployment benefits, relief checks, and money to keep firefighters and teachers on the job. Republican success in 2010 was fueled in part by a revolt over spending after a stimulus bill, a bank bailout, and the Affordable Care Act (which actually reduced the deficit despite what Republicans claimed). In this poll, we tested the Republican austerity arguments and found them to be relatively ineffective. Framing Biden’s policies with Right Wing language about debt and deficits reduced support, but only by about 10 points.
In other words, a majority of voters still support Biden’s plans even though they add to the deficit. The finding should embolden Democrats to push for the policies that do the most good and dismiss bad faith complaints from Republicans and others. Given the immense desire for action on COVID and the economy, trimming the sails to appease faux deficit hawks would a monumental political mistake.
I found the way that chart is organized to be a little bit awkward. What it means is when they asked “do you support Joe Biden’s American Rescue plan?” and even when they frame it with right wing talking points, a majority still support it, which is a nice surprise.
Pfeiffer writes:
While this poll is very good news for President Biden and the Democrats, it also demonstrates the challenges of governing with such narrow majorities. The ability of Democrats to deliver on their agenda is hampered by the potentially unanimous Republican opposition and legislative loopholes like the filibuster. Voters are demanding results regardless of how they get them.
Voters want compromise, but not at the expense of needed progress. By a margin of 64-27 voters would prefer that Democrats win the support of members of both parties, even if Democrats have to compromise on some of their priorities. However, given a choice between as much relief as possible with no Republican support or less relief with Republican support, voters prefer as much relief as possible 46 percent to 38 percent. Compromise is nice, but the voters prioritize relief.
Despite the affinity for the filibuster by Senators Manchin, Synema, and others, the public is willing to throw it overboard to make progress. Voters favor eliminating the filibuster by an 8-point margin, and if Republicans used the filibuster to block a $15 minimum wage, they’d support ending it by a 14-point margin.
The poll asked voters how they would feel if “Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans in Congress do everything in their power to block Democrats from passing any laws, regardless of what the laws might do.” Nearly 9 in 10 Biden voters would feel negatively if that happened.
Allowing McConnell to block progress is going to diminish Democratic enthusiasm making the sky-high turnout that Democrats need to hold the House and the Senate nearly impossible to achieve. Given a choice between passing a big agenda through Budget Reconciliation or by eliminating the filibuster or passing something smaller with bipartisan cooperation, this poll makes it clear that voters very much prefer the former.
I understand that Democrats look back at the 2010 “shellacking” and worry about a backlash in two years. It’s true that was also a time of major crisis after a Republican administration left the country in shambles but the pandemic is a different kind of crisis and the violence from the MAGA cult has taken the right to a new level of threat.
And anyway, they have no choice. Politically risky or not, people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake. They have to do it and let the chips fall where they may.