Here’s some more bad news for President Joe Biden, whose administration insists everyone loves his multitrillion-dollar partisan social benefits and climate spending bills.
A mere 25% of the public believes it will be “better off” if Biden’s $3.5 trillion social spending plan becomes law, according to polling data released this week by CNN. This is compared to the 32% of respondents who believe they would actually be worse off if the bills passed.
Meanwhile, 43% of respondents say life would be “about the same” if the president finally gets his bills through Congress.
The survey, which polled some 1,000 U.S. adults online between Oct. 7-11, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
The White House’s domestic agenda has stalled in Congress as the Democratic-controlled House refuses to approve the Democratic-controlled Senate’s infrastructure bill unless it also includes trillions of dollars in additional social spending. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona say they will not approve the House’s demands until the price tag comes down substantially.
As neither group has budged and the Senate’s makeup is currently a 50-50 split, the situation has reached a stalemate.
The new CNN poll also found 41% of respondents want Biden’s social spending plan passed in all its $3.5 trillion glory, while a smaller 30% of respondents want a less expensive version passed. Twenty-nine percent, on the other hand, want nothing passed at all.
Put simply, 41% of respondents want the full $3.5 trillion, while a larger 59% say they want something significantly cheaper or nothing at all.
This will complicate things for the president and his allies, including White House press secretary Jen Psaki and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both of whom insist the public loves the administration’s social spending plan and wants it passed immediately by Congress.
The plan has a “lot in it,” Pelosi said this week at a presser. “We’ll have to continue to make sure the public [understands it]. But whether they know it or not, [they] overwhelmingly support it.”
She also criticized the press for not doing more to warm the public to the two bills.
“Well, I think you all could do a better job of selling it,” the speaker griped at the press conference. “To be very frank with you, because every time I come here, I go through the list. Family medical leave, climate, the issues that are in there.”
She added, “But it is true. It is hard to break through when you have such a comprehensive package. But as we narrow it down and put it out there, I think that it will … For example, one of the things in the bill is the continuation of the Biden tax credit — that is, child tax credit — that is within the rescue package. That has great appeal. Do people know where it springs from? No, but it’s a vast bill.”
Psaski had a similar pitch this week for the president’s spending plan, claiming it’s something the public very much desires.
“[Biden] sees his role as doing what the American people sent him to the White House to do,” she told reporters. “Which is to find common ground so that we can move forward with an agenda that the American people demand we pass.”
They’re out here saying everyone wants the $3.5 trillion plan, and they’re saying everyone will love it once it becomes law. But this CNN polling, which actually shows some good signs for the president’s overall approval rating, makes selling the message that much more complicated.
Do you ignore the survey and the positive signs it shows for the president’s job approval rating? Or do you tout the job approval numbers and hope no one notices the bit about how 59% of the same respondents want smaller spending bills or nothing at all?
Which way, leftward man?
