- McCarthy said voters support Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus because they don’t know what it contains.
- “This is not a relief bill, it is basically a reward for Pelosi’s political allies,” he said.
- Recent polls show that 75% of registered voters are in favor of the stimulus package.
- See more stories on the Insider business page.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy told Punchbowl News on Thursday, Americans overwhelmingly support President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion stimulus package because they don’t understand what is in the American bailout plan.
He also falsely claimed in his interview with Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News that the $ 800 billion economic stimulus legislation of former President Barack Obama, which went into effect in 2009, had similarly high approval ratings. Neither Biden’s nor Obama’s relief packages found any support among Republican lawmakers, but Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus package attracted significantly greater public approval than Obama’s.
A McCarthy spokesman did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
“This is not a relief bill, it is basically a reward for Pelosi’s political allies, and it will be the American people paying the bill,” McCarthy said in a statement on Thursday.
—Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 11, 2021
Even though Republican Party politicians attack the American Rescue Plan as very expensive, the majority – 54% – of Republican voters support the law, which Biden signed on Thursday afternoon.
A poll by Politico and Morning Consult earlier this month found that 75% of registered voters support the stimulus package, and 59% of Republicans, at least somewhat, support it.
And the Pew Research Center poll this week found that 70% of Americans are in favor of the stimulus, while only 28% are opposed to it. Pew also found that Republican support for the stimulus increased significantly as the respondent’s income declined. While 63% of low-income Republicans and respondents with Republican tendencies support relief, only 37% of middle-income Republicans and 25% of high-income Republicans said the same.