76 percent approve of Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus

When was the last time that happened? Never.

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You couldn’t get 76 percent of Americans to agree that Christmas comes only once a year, and yet here it is:  a poll released today by Morning Consult has approval of Biden’s COVID relief bill at exactly that.  The break-out numbers are just as astounding.  89 percent of Democrats approve, 71 percent of Independents back the Biden plan, and an amazing 60 percent of Republicans are behind the stimulus.  Overall, only 17 percent of voters oppose the plan.

Support for Biden’s COVID relief plan has gone up since last month, when 64 percent of voters said they strongly backed additional stimulus.  But it’s Republican support for the plan that is truly astonishing.  When was the last time 60 percent of Republicans approved of anything a Democrat came up with?  How about, we’re going to cover all your pre-existing conditions and provide health care coverage to your pal who just lost his job?  You think 60 percent of Republicans got behind that wild idea?  Think again.  Republican opposition to Obamacare in 2010 when the law was passed was across the board.

But interestingly, the ground has shifted since then.  Another recent Morning Consult poll found overall support for Obamacare among voters at 55 percent, with 83 percent Democratic approval compared to 22 percent among Republicans.  But break out support for coverage of pre-existing conditions – a key feature of the law – and the numbers squeeze together.  Support for pre-existing conditions coverage is currently at 89 percent among Democrats, and get ready…86 percent among Republicans!

Is there a message here?  I think there may well be, and Democrats should sit up and take notice.  When people can look around at their own families and friends and see a real need, like now with the damage that’s been done to the economy by a year of COVID and 500,000 deaths, support for doing something about it is fairly close.  It makes perfect sense that 89 percent of Democrats would support COVID relief, but 60 percent support among Republicans tells us something.  They are hurting too, and they’re not averse to the government stepping in and doing something about it. 

The same is true with pre-existing conditions.  It’s apparent that even Trump supporters have had sick children and grandparents who weren’t covered before Obamacare, so even they support coverage of pre-existing conditions. 

I suspect that there’s something else affecting support for the stimulus plan:  Joe Biden.  Republicans may not have voted for him, and I’m sure they would come down against him in a Biden “approve or disapprove” poll.  But I think the way he has pushed for his stimulus package, as a sensible, logical thing to do that everyone can see is needed, has moved the needle of support for his plan, even among Republicans.

He’s coming across as Uncle Joe, and it’s turning out to be a good thing, folks.  It’s looking harder and harder to be against Uncle Joe when he speaks plainly and with kindness and empathy about what COVID has done to us.  And even among Republicans, I think it’s nigh-on impossible to hate him. 

It’s turning out that approaching the job of being president without rancor and ill will is working for him.  Isn’t that truly amazing?