In the new poll, 61% support Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion economic relief bill that is expected to pass the House on Wednesday, and several key provisions of the bill are even more popular. A large majority of Americans (85%) claim to support policies in the bill that would provide greater tax credits for families and make them easier for low-income families to claim, including majorities across all party lines (95% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans support). About three quarters favor provisions to provide financing to facilitate return to the classroom for elementary and high school students (77%), and sending stimulus checks worth up to $ 1,400 per person to most families and individuals (76%). Both policies also have majority support in all party lines (55% of Republicans support each; among Democrats, support reaches 90% for each).
A small majority, 59%, claim to have returned to provide $ 350 billion in aid to state and local governments. This policy generates the clearest party division among the four tested, with 88% of Democrats in favor against only 28% of Republicans.
A measure that is not in the bill – raising the federal minimum wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15 an hour – is also supported by the majority. Overall, 55% are in favor of such an increase in the minimum wage, including 85% of Democrats, 52% of independents and 20% of Republicans.
Approximately two-thirds of Americans say that if the bill becomes law, it will help the economy at least a little (66%), and 55% say it would help people like them. Those with lower annual incomes are more likely to say the bill will do a lot to help them than those with higher incomes (46% of those who earn less than $ 25,000 a year say it will help a lot of people like them, compared to just 6% among those who earn $ 100,000 or more a year), as well as women (28% of women say it will help them a lot against 19% of men) and people of color (37% among women) people of color against 16% among whites).
The bill’s widespread popularity comes when just over half of Americans say they approve of the way Biden is handling the presidency (51%), while 41% disapprove. Biden’s ratings are higher in relation to the treatment of the coronavirus pandemic: 60% approve and 34% disapprove. And the majority, 54%, say that the new president’s policies will take the country in the right direction.
Still, even with high hopes for economic improvement in the relief bill, there is evidence in this survey that Biden has not yet won over the public in his way of dealing with the economy in general. Their approval rating to deal with this is 49% approve, 44% disapprove, and only 30% say they have a lot of confidence in Biden to deal with the economy.
Even though the bill is about to become a major legislative achievement for the Biden government, the president receives somewhat mixed criticism for his handling of some issues, including environmental policy (50% approve, 41% disapprove), helping the class average (50% approve, 43% disapprove), racial injustice (47% approve, 43% disapprove), foreign relations (44% approve and 46% disapprove) and immigration (43% approve and 49% disapprove).
Biden’s overall approval rating about two months into his presidency is higher than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, who had a 45% approval rating in a CNN poll in March 2017. But Biden’s 51% is behind from other modern presidents, including the three most recent before Trump (Barack Obama, 64% in March 2009, George W. Bush, 58% in March 2001 and Bill Clinton, 53% in March 1993).
Biden and Trump appear to be left behind because of a much more pronounced party polarization than their predecessors faced at this stage of their presidencies.
Almost all Democrats approve of how Biden is handling work so far (92%), while almost all Republicans disapprove (88%). This is almost the same as Trump’s party views in March 2017 (88% of Republicans approved and 89% of Democrats disapproved). In March 2009, Obama’s disapproval among Republicans was more than 20 points lower than Biden’s (65% disapproved), Bush’s disapproval among Democrats was only 49% in March 2001 and the disapproval rate Clinton among Republicans in March 1993 was 59%.
Americans also seem to have more confidence in Biden than in Trump in political leadership measures. Overall, 38% say they have a lot of confidence in Biden’s ability to provide real leadership for the country (31% said so about Trump in April 2017) and 34% have a lot of confidence in Biden to nominate the best people for the job (Trump was 27% in April 2017). About a third (32%) say they have a lot of confidence in Biden to work effectively with Congress.
The share of Americans who say things in the country today are going well recovered after falling sharply in January. Overall, 39% say things are going well now, up from 22% in January and almost the same as in October 2020, just before the presidential election. However, there was a strong party reversal on this issue, as it usually does when the presidency changes hands. Only 9% of Democrats said things were going well in January, which rose to 59% in the new poll. On the Republican side, the percentage that says things are going well has dropped from 37% in January to 19% now.
The CNN survey was conducted by the SSRS from March 3 to 8, among a random national sample of 1,009 adults reached on landlines or cell phones by a live interviewer. The results of the complete sample have a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
The methodology and weight of the survey incorporate some changes in CNN’s research practices from the January 2021 survey. The interviews conducted on cell phones accounted for 75% of the total, up from 65% in recent CNN surveys. Dialing extended over six days instead of four days, allowing more efforts to be made to contact those who are not easily accessible. The demographic weighting was adjusted to take into account more discrete categories of education divided by race, and a geographical weighting was applied to ensure the representative distribution by population density.