Senate Republicans “Risk Backlash” If They Vote Against Popular COVID-19 Rescue Plan

As New Polling Continues To Show Broad, Overwhelming Support for Democrats’ Relief Package — Including From Republicans — GOP Obstruction Carries “Significant Political Risk”

As Republicans in Washington continue to obstruct President Joe Biden and Democrats’ COVID-19 rescue plan, a new CNN analysis finds GOP lawmakers face potential “backlash” and “significant political risk by forming a unified front of opposition to the legislation.” If Senate Republicans follow through on opposing this urgently needed relief package, they will be putting themselves on the record voting against funding to safely reopen schools, against resources to ramp up vaccine distribution, against $1,400 direct relief checks, against helping state and local governments keep first responders on the job, against emergency unemployment and small business assistance, and against numerous other critical priorities for the American people.

New Morning Consult polling underscores Republicans’ losing crusade against the American Rescue Plan. As the GOP struggles to make the case against the “increasingly popular” bill in Washington, the public — including even 60% of Republican voters — supports the legislation’s core provisions. While Republican politicians in Congress desperately try to derail the bill, many local GOP elected officials across the country agree Democrats’ rescue plan includes “badly needed federal aid.” More than 150 top business leaders are also backing Democrats’ plan.

“Republicans grossly mismanaged this pandemic and let the virus spread out of control for the past year, and now their top priority in the Senate is trying to block meaningful relief for struggling Americans trying to get through this public health and economic disaster,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “No matter how they try to spin it, voting against a major relief package with this much broad support during a national crisis would be harmful to the country and a political liability for Senate Republicans everywhere.”

CNN: Congressional Republicans risk backlash as they unite against Biden’s Covid relief plan

• Democrats and Republicans tangled over the size and scope of Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan Wednesday, despite the broad public support for the package and a new push by business leaders to get it passed.

• But with the bill headed to the House floor for a vote as early as Friday, Republicans face significant political risk by forming a unified front of opposition to the legislation, especially given that nearly 7 in 10 Americans supported the bill in a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month.

• One area the GOP has been heavily focused on is getting kids back into school, for example, because they see it as a winning issue at the ballot box in 2022. Yet their opposition to Biden’s legislation could complicate those efforts, since many members will likely end up on the record voting against a Covid relief bill that would provide money for exactly that purpose.

• Republicans are attempting to sharpen their arguments against legislation that is intended to help speed up the delivery of vaccines; send direct payments of up to $1,400 to Americans making up to $75,000 annually; extend key pandemic unemployment programs; provide aid to struggling small business owners; and dedicate nearly $130 billion for K-12 schools to make safety improvements aimed at allowing them to reopen (or stay open).

Morning Consult: With Congressional Stimulus Fight Looming, 76% of Voters Back $1.9 Trillion Plan, Including 60% of Republicans

• While Republicans in Congress have balked at the overall price tag for Biden’s proposed package, new Morning Consult/Politico polling shows that the public — including Republican voters — overwhelmingly supports the legislation.

• In the poll, which was conducted Feb. 19-22 among 2,013 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points, 76 percent said they back the stimulus package, including 52 percent who said they “strongly” support the bill. Only 17 percent of voters said they oppose it.

• A combined 71 percent of independents said they support the stimulus package, compared with 22 percent who oppose it.

• While Republicans offered  the lowest amount of support, more than half of GOP voters still back the stimulus package at 60 percent.

• The stimulus package and Biden’s other economic plans have enjoyed support from voters so far. Sixty-four percent of voters said in January that they strongly backed additional economic stimulus.

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