President Biden was blunt Friday about the necessity of passing a COVID-19 relief bill, even if it takes using the procedural tool of reconciliation to avoid a GOP filibuster in the Senate. While Biden said he would welcome Republican support "if we can get it,” he added, "The COVID relief has to pass. No ifs, ands or buts."
As the week has moved along, Democrats have seemed increasingly comfortable with going it alone on Biden’s COVID-19 rescue package. In fact, many of their efforts have begun to turn toward lining up the support of other Democrats, which is why Vice President Kamala Harris was recently deployed to do media appearances in the home states of Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
The determined urgency of Biden and congressional Democrats is not only a must—it's completely supported by just about every data point that has emerged since Biden set foot in the Oval Office. Not only is it broadly popular with the public, a Reuters poll of more than 100 economists recently found that over 90% of them said Biden's stimulus package would boost the economy significantly.
Here's a round of public polling over the past couple of weeks:
- Monmouth: 71% want Republicans to cooperate with Biden rather than hamper him.
- Vox/Data for Progress: 60% strongly support $1,400 one-time payment, another 23% somewhat support it. Only 15% strongly/somewhat oppose it.
- Morning Consult poll: 82% of Americans want more small business aid, and 72% want stimulus checks from the Biden administration.
- Crooked Media/Change Research: Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package is supported by 69% of voters, including 39% of Trump voters. (The plan was described to voters as a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package that would distribute the vaccine more quickly, provide $1,400 to individuals, increase unemployment benefits, require paid leave, subsidize childcare, create 100,000 public health jobs, provide rental aid and small business aid, and more.) Also, if McConnell and Republicans block Democrats from passing any laws regardless of what those laws do, 58% of respondents said it would engender negative feelings (32% angry, 22% frustrated, 4% sad) while just 29% said they would feel positively (12% happy, 11% relieved, 5% excited)
Bottom line, the overwhelming polling evidence all points in one direction—Biden has a broad mandate from the public, particularly when it comes to enacting his COVID rescue package and delivering $1,400 direct payments.
The question for Republicans who don’t support it because of the price tag needs to consistently be: Who and what do you want to leave out?
But the real pressure campaign going forward will likely be aimed at getting any holdout Democrats on board.
