WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden is enjoying an early presidential honeymoon, with 60% of Americans approving his job performance so far and even more supporting his treatment of the coronavirus pandemic., according to new research by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
At a time of deep political polarization in America, support for the response to the Biden pandemic extends across all party lines. Overall, 70% of Americans support the way the Democratic president handled the response to the virus, including 44% of Republicans.
Still, Biden faces more Americans skepticism about the economy, which was hit by the pandemic. Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of Biden’s approach to the economy so far, and 63% say the US economy is in bad shape, shows the AP-NORC survey. Republicans are also less likely to support Biden in the economy than in the pandemic, with only 17% supporting his tax administration.
Less than two months in your presidency, Biden has made the pandemic his central focus, urging Americans to follow strict guidelines of social distance and mask and promising to speed up the distribution of essential vaccines. He also argued that until the spread of the virus is under control, the economy will not fully recover.
To deal with financial deficits in the meantime, he is asking Congress to approve a $ 1.9 trillion pandemic rescue plan. this would provide direct payments to millions of Americans and increase funds for state and local governments.
The measure has already been approved by the Chamber. But Biden is having to make concessions to keep all Democratic senators backing the move, including agreeing this week to tighten eligibility for $ 1,400 stimulus checks. In a concession to moderate Democratic senators, Biden agreed that individuals who earn more than $ 80,000 annually and couples who earn more than $ 160,000 will receive no benefits. Biden’s original proposal extended stimulus funds to Americans with higher annual salaries.
The government estimates that 158.5 million families will still receive checks under the Senate agreement.
The prospect of a pandemic relief bill is good news for John Villegas, 58, an Illinois Democrat who supports Biden’s handling of the virus response and the economy.
“With so many deals closed, a lot of people are suffering,” said Villegas, who called Biden’s approach a “180-degree shift” from his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Trump argued that the United States economy could not pay the blow that came with the restrictions imposed on business and travel. Economists’ worst fears were averted when Republican-led states followed Trump’s example and resisted restrictions, but COVID-19 cases soared. More than 520,000 people died in the United States due to the virus last year.
Despite his different approaches to managing the economy during the pandemic, Biden’s approval ratings on the economy are similar to those of Trump, whose handling of the economy since the virus first came into being has been consistently supported by about half of Americans. The main difference: this level of support has made the economy Trump’s strongest issue, although it is a relative weakness for Biden compared to Americans’ views on how to deal with the pandemic and other issues.
Reflecting partisanship that continues to prevail in the United States, many Americans’ view of the economy has changed since the new president took office.. In December, 67% of Republicans and only 15% of Democrats described the economy as good. Now, 35% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats describe the economy in a positive way. There has been little change in overall growth or unemployment over that time.
The way Biden is dealing with the pandemic may well determine the course of his presidency and the political capital he has available to pursue meaningful legislation on other issues. Democrats are urgently working to prepare bills that address infrastructure investments, policing reforms and voting rights. Biden also promised to fight climate change and take advantage of comprehensive health insurance measure turned into law when he served as vice president of Barack Obama.
His promises of action have earned him solid approval ratings on some of these fronts. For example, about 6 out of 10 Americans say they approve of Biden’s treatment of health care and race relations.
Overall, 48% of Americans say the country is going in the right direction, compared with 37% who said so in December. The survey also shows that 43% of Americans expect things in the country to improve in the next year, while 34% think things will get worse and 23% think they will stay the same.
Biden himself was deliberately cautious in predicting when life in the United States will return to pre-pandemic normality. Even when he promises that the United States will have enough vaccine supplies for all Americans by the end of May, he said it could be the end of the year or the beginning of 2022 before the Americans could stop wearing masks or return to normal activities altogether.
Your team’s goal in setting expectations? Make an insufficient promise and then overdeliver.
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The AP-NORC survey of 1,434 adults was conducted from February 23 to March 1 using a sample taken from the AmeriSpeak Panel based on NORC’s probability, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The sampling error margin for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
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AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.