Americans support Biden’s spending and want him to spend more, polls show

Biden’s infrastructure proposal, which in its initial form comes with a price tag of more than $2 trillion, is also popular among Americans, polls show.

The package would fund a range of projects that go far beyond merely repairing roads, bridges, ports and other structures that some refer to as “traditional” transportation infrastructure. The White House frames the plan as a forward-looking investment that will address climate change, the rise of China, racial injustice and more.

A Monmouth University poll published Monday found that nearly two-thirds of respondents back the plan, as well as the idea of paying for it, in part, by hiking the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%.

Nearly half of those polled by Monmouth said the federal government isn’t spending enough on transportation infrastructure, 49%, compared with 23% who said the government is spending the right amount and 14% who said it’s spending too much.

Monmouth’s poll was conducted by phone from April 8 to April 12 with 800 U.S. adults, and the results carry a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points.

CNBC’s latest All-America Survey, which polled 802 adults nationwide from April 8 to April 11 and has a plus-or-minus 3.5 point margin of error, found that only a slight plurality support the infrastructure plan and the corporate tax increases.

But Americans overwhelmingly support nearly all the details of the plan when presented with them individually, the poll found.

Infrastructure investment is historically popular among both major political parties. But Republicans, and some moderate Democrats, have pushed for Biden to significantly pare back the sweeping package.

A group of GOP senators last week put forward a counteroffer that costs less than one-third of Biden’s proposal. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has slammed the Biden plan as a “Trojan horse” for a progressive agenda.

But the survey results suggest that at this early stage, the White House’s ambitious outline resonates with large chunks of the country.

“The Biden administration’s presumption that spending programs are popular is borne out by these poll numbers,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a press release Monday.

“The key to maintaining this level of support is whether Americans can point to direct benefits in their own lives once those plans are put into action.”

Ellis told CNBC that at this point “there is not a lot to necessarily attack or go after.”

“The devil is going to be in the details on these,” Ellis said.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/27/americans-support-bidens-spending-want-him-to-spend-more-polls-show.html