President Joe Biden likely caught some people by surprise last week during his State of the Union address when he devoted a whole section to decrying those annoying fees that so many companies use to nickel and dime their customers.
Everyone hates the fees that airlines and hotels tack on to bills to pad their bottom line, but in some ways it seemed like a niche issue.
But it turns out "everyone" is the operative word in that sentence. A new Morning Consult poll shows the hidden fees issue that Biden seized on while previewing his new Junk Fee Protection Act is the perfect everyman issue.
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Roughly 75% of respondents support both reducing service fees for event tickets and eliminating early cancellation fees for cable TV/internet, with a majority "strongly" supporting in both instances.
Both proposals addressing fees for ticketing and cancelling services garner about 80% support from Democrats, 70% support from independents, and 72% support from Republicans. That’s about as bipartisan as it gets.
The demographics most animated by the idea are also interesting:
- Generationally, baby boomers are most likely to back reducing fees for concerts/sporting events at 79%, as well as eliminating fees charged by cell phone, cable TV, and internet providers at 77%.
- Among income brackets, those who reported a household income of $100,000 or more are most likely to say they want reduced service fees (82%) and the elimination of early termination fees (80%).
The demographic breakdown tracks pretty closely for both issues, but here's a look at support for eliminating cable TV/internet fees.
"Junk fees may not matter to the very wealthy, but they matter to most other folks in homes like the one I grew up in, like many of you did," Biden said during his address, setting up the populist riff.
"The idea that cable, internet, and cellphone companies can charge you $200 or more if you decide to switch to another provider. Give me a break," Biden protested.
"We’ll prohibit airlines from charging $50 roundtrip for a family just to be able to sit together," he explained. "Baggage fees are bad enough. Airlines can’t treat your child like a piece of baggage."
"Americans," he continued, "are tired of being—we’re tired of being played for suckers."
True enough: Roughly three-quarters of Americans are tired of that, as a matter of fact.
Junk fees may not be voters' most urgent issue in the same way that abortion access or health care affordability are, but they're an issue that nearly everyone loves to hate—which makes them a great electoral issue to highlight and organize around.
How can you tell when a poll is actually high quality? Natalie Jackson, research director at PRRI, joins us on The Downballot to discuss that and more. Jackson tells us the indicators she looks for to determine whether a survey is worth taking seriously, what she thinks the future of polling aggregation ought to look like, and why white evangelical Christians are the real outliers when it comes to religious groups' views on abortion.
Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also break down a proposal to increase the size of the House, which has been capped at 435 members for more than a century.
