President Biden and congressional Democrats crafted a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that clearly met a need felt by the vast majority of Americans, which is why it consistently polled at roughly 70% support.
But then congressional Democrats went on to do something Americans almost never see: They actually passed the legislation the public deeply want to see enacted. That anomaly after final passage of the bill Wednesday proved even more popular than the bill itself, according to a new survey from CBS News/YouGov.
Overall, 75% of respondents approved of Congress passing the COVID-19 relief package, including 77% of independents and 46% of Republicans.
Here’s the breakdown one more time because, why not?
- Overall support for passage: 75%
- Democrats: 94%
- Independents: 77%
- Republicans: 46%
Oh, and don't look now, but 67% of Americans think Biden is doing a "very good" job handling the pandemic—an 11-point jump from last month. The survey has Biden's overall job approval rating at 60%—not too shabby for less than two months in office. Several recent approval polls have put Biden in the 50s (still better than Trump, of course), so the CBS results could either be a bit of an outlier or an early sign of an upward trend. Only time will tell.
But if you want a gauge for how Republicans think their 100% opposition to the wildly popular plan is panning out so far, just look at the defensive posture of everything they are saying. When Sen. John Cornyn of Texas was asked about GOP prospects for smearing the bill, he started with, “Unfortunately, there’s going to be a sugar high because free money is very popular.” True, senator, especially when people really need that money and tell pollsters in survey after survey that they really need that money.
On Wednesday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell even tried to rob Democrats in advance of getting credit for the plan's future effects on the economy.
"We're about to have a boom," McConnell said. "And if we do have a boom, it will have absolutely nothing to do with this $1.9 trillion."
Hoo-boy, good one. McConnell’s press shop followed up on Thursday with another prebuttal to the booming economy he sees on the horizon.
"2021 is set to be an historic comeback yr," read the McConnell Press tweet. "Not because of far-left legislation that was passed after the tide had already turned. But because of the resilience of the American people."
What McConnell’s pre-gaslighting tells is that the transformative Democratic package has the support of many Republican voters (something polling has confirmed), and he's pretty desperate to make sure Democrats don't get credit for it.
The best way to do that would have been to support the bill and let congressional Republicans vote their districts/states. Instead, GOP leadership whipped against the package, forcing Democrats to pass it entirely on their own.
McConnell was part of the braintrust of GOP leaders who made that call. Seems to be panning out perfectly.
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