President Joe Biden has barely begun to roll out his American Families Plan, and it’s already proving to be pretty popular, according to fresh polling from Politico/Morning Consult.
At base level, 58% say they either strongly or somewhat support the $1.8 trillion investment to improve the nation's child care, education, and paid leave programs. That support includes 86% of Democrats, 54% of independents, and 25% of Republicans.
But some of the individual components of the plan are more popular than the proposal as a whole.
- Ensuring low- to middle-income families pay no more than 7% of income on child care: 64% support, 22% oppose
- Free preschool for all 3 to 4 year olds: 63% support, 26% oppose
- Two free years of community college: 59% support, 31% oppose
- $15/hour minimum wage for child care workers: 59% support, 31% oppose
- Extending expanded child care tax credit: 57% support, 26% oppose
- Two years of subsidized tuition at HBCUs: 56% support, 31% oppose
At least 10-18% of respondents were undecided on every one of those initiatives, so there's presumably room to grow support for them as the White House puts more time and energy into selling the package.
The two most popular items—a 7% of income cap on child care expenses and universal preschool—also garnered solid GOP support, with 45% of Republicans backing the income cap and 42% supporting universal preschool. The popularity of individual initiatives may prove important if Democrats decide to fold certain pieces of Biden’s jobs and families proposals into one package.
That's a solid start on an initiative that President Biden has only begun to explain to the public. It's also generally in keeping with the popularity of Biden's other trillion-dollar initiatives addressing the pandemic and jobs/infrastructure, though Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package typically polled in the 40s/50s with Republican voters.