Americans Overwhelmingly Want Congress To Approve Another Coronavirus Stimulus Package – FiveThirtyEight

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All eyes have been on Congress this week as Republicans and Democrats have worked feverishly to hammer out another COVID-19 economic relief bill. As of Thursday afternoon, it looked like the sides were coming together on a roughly $900 billion package that would provide funding to struggling businesses, extend unemployment benefits and send checks to individual Americans but not protect businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits or bail out local governments.

If and when the stimulus bill passes, it should be popular with the American public. According to a YouGov/CBS News poll conducted Dec. 8-11, 86 percent of registered voters approved of Congress passing an additional economic relief package that would provide funds to people and businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. That support cut across party lines, too: 94 percent of Democrats, 85 percent of independents and 79 percent of Republicans all said they approved of such a package.

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In fact, Americans are so desperate for congressional action on the coronavirus that they would support a relief package that doesnt send them each a personal stimulus payment something past polls have found extremely popular. However, support for such a bill was significantly lower than for the one described by YouGov/CBS News: Registered voters supported it 63 percent to 37 percent, according to a Dec. 3-7 poll from HarrisX/The Hill. Thats looking pretty hypothetical at this point, though: Congress is likely to pass some form of stimulus payments this time around (though they are likely to be only $600 per person, not $1,200 as in the spring).

Unsurprisingly, Americans remain worried about the economic impact of the pandemic. According to FiveThirtyEights tracker of such polls, 53.1 percent of Americans say they are very concerned about the coronaviruss effect on the economy, and 32.6 percent say they are somewhat concerned.

But recent news not just the likely passage of another stimulus bill, but also the rollout of what looks like a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine may lessen the intensity of their concern. Some Americans seem to have switched from the very concerned camp to the somewhat concerned camp in our tracker over the past couple weeks, driven largely by this weeks Ipsos/Axios poll in which only 48 percent of adults said they were either extremely or very concerned about an economic collapse.

[Related: Does It Matter Which COVID-19 Vaccine You Get?]

The country may also be feeling more optimistic given the upcoming presidential transition. Morning Consult/Politicos poll this week asked registered voters whom they trusted more to handle the economic recovery following the coronavirus: 52 percent said President-elect Biden, while 38 percent said President Trump.

And other polls this week suggest that Americans do not want the current stimulus bill to be the governments last action to address the crisis. For example, in the latest installment of Navigator Researchs regular tracking poll on the coronavirus, 65 percent of registered voters chose the pandemic as one of the top four issues they want Biden and the new Congress to focus on in January by far the highest share of any issue. In second place, with 48 percent, is jobs and the economy.

According to FiveThirtyEights presidential approval tracker, 43.6 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 52.5 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of -8.9 points). At this time last week, 43.3 percent approved and 52.4 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of -9.1 points). One month ago, Trump had an approval rating of 44.8 percent and a disapproval rating of 52.0 percent, for a net approval rating of -7.2 points.

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Americans Overwhelmingly Want Congress To Approve Another Coronavirus Stimulus Package - FiveThirtyEight