Negotiations about infrastructure and accounts for social programs have been spent on Capitol Hill for months. Nevertheless, a new ABC News / Ipsos poll on Sunday found that Democrats have failed to sell legislation to the public, which has generally unconscious about what’s in the spending packages, or skeptical of helping people like themselves, or the economy if they signed them.
the President Joe Biden was cannot insure legislative victory before leaving on its own another trip abroad since taking office, even after setting the framework for a package focusing on social programs and climate change around which he believes Democrats can come together. This package, which no longer includes paid family and health leave or free joint school, was presented on Thursday as a “historic economic” opportunity, but this poll reflects ongoing confusion and intra-party mistrust above these accounts.
Although the majority (55%) of the public follows the news of the negotiations at least somewhat closely, about 7 out of 10 (69%) Americans said they know little or almost nothing about what is in both laws. Less than half (31%) said they know a lot or well. Despite Republicans sitting on the sidelines while the White House is working exclusively with congressional Democrats to bring both laws to the president’s table, the lack of knowledge is spreading to all parties.
Americans also don’t think these bills would help them either the American economy if they become law.
An ABC News / Ipsos survey conducted with the help of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel found that the majority (32%) of Americans believe that bills would harm people like them if they became law, while fewer (25%) believe to help them. Almost 2 out of 10 (18%) think the bills would make no difference, and 24% said they don’t know.
Even among Democrats alone, less than half (47%) believe both laws would help people like them. A quarter of Democrats believe laws would make no difference to people like them, and about 2 out of 10 (22%) don’t know how they would affect their lives. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans believe laws would harm people like them, and so about 3 out of 10 (29%) are independent.
The American public is evenly divided – 34% to 34% – as to whether they believe these laws would help or harm the U.S. economy if they became law. Very few (6%) believe that the accounts would have no impact on the economy, and a quarter do not know this. Democrats were much more likely to think that legislation would help the economy if passed, as Republicans and independents, 68% compared to 7% and 29%, respectively.
Biden’s inability to get these bills over the target did not help the president’s average assessment of the approval of a number of issues, which have solidified from 24 to 28 September ABC News / Ipsos poll.
His handling with coronavirus pandemic and U.S. infrastructure renewal are the only issues where the majority of the public approves of Biden – 56% and 52%, respectively – and there is no improvement compared to the latest ABC News / Ipsos poll. On both issues, he is supported by the almost universal support of members of his own party, as well as about half of the independents.
A slightly smaller majority of Americans approve of the president’s conduct climate change (48%) and economic recovery (47%). Again, relatively high support among Democrats – 78% and 86% respectively – prevents his approval from falling too far.
Republicans are generally unanimous against the president on all issues, but the general approval of Biden is the biggest blow to issues where the trust of Democrats and independents is falling.
While about half (49%) of independents support Biden’s approach to climate change, on other issues – economic recovery, gun violence, crime and taxes – the approval of independents is around 4 out of 10.
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The President’s overall approval falls below 40% on three issues: gun violence (39%), Afghanistan (34%) and immigration and the situation on the US-Mexico border (31%).
Less than two-thirds (64%) of Democrats approve of Biden’s treatment of gun violence. A similar proportion (62%) of Democrats approve of the president’s treatment of Afghanistan. Regarding immigration, Biden barely holds the majority support in his own party, as only 54 percent approve of it on this issue.
Only about 3 out of 10 independents support Biden handling immigration in Afghanistan29% and 31%, respectively.
METHODOLOGY: This ABC News / Ipsos survey was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs KnowledgePanel® 29-30. October 2021 in English and Spanish among a random national sample of 514 adults. The results have a sampling error limit of 4.7 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions were 31% -24% -36%, Democrats-Republicans-Independent. See top survey results and methodology details here.
Ken Goldstein and Dan Merkle of ABC News contributed to this report.
Poor, Democrats fail to sell agenda to Americans: POLL originally appeared on abcnews.go.com