Nothing is more important
Amid worsening economic numbers — and President Biden’s lowest approval rating to date — a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll suggests that Democrats’ best chance for a boost before November’s pivotal midterm elections would be to pass the climate change, tax and prescription drug bill that Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a key Democratic centrist, finally agreed to support last week.
The survey of 1,557 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 28 to Aug. 1, found that Americans favor — by wide margins — each major component of the sweeping “reconciliation” deal that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer negotiated with Manchin.
When told, for instance, that “Democrats in the U.S. Senate just put forward a surprise $369 billion climate and energy package that promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030,” nearly half of Americans (47%) say they favor it, while less than a third (30%) say they’re opposed.
That gap then widens even further — to 61% favor and 14% oppose — when respondents are told that “the Democrats’ new Senate package would also lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time while capping out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 a year.”
And when the deal’s funding mechanism is described — “the Democrats’ new Senate package would also raise an estimated $451 billion in new revenue over the next decade primarily by requiring large corporations to pay the taxes they owe, while setting aside $300 billion for deficit reduction” — a majority of Americans (53%) still say they favor it. Just 19% are opposed.
At a time of bitter polarization, these are strikingly positive results for any bill explicitly associated with one party and not the other. Independents support each element of the Manchin-Schumer deal by the same wide margins as Americans overall — and even a plurality of Republicans favor (47%) rather than oppose (27%) its prescription-drug reforms.
Between this and abortion rights and January 6th and Donald Trump and his batshit crazies, the Dems have a chance.