Elliot Morris wrote in his newsletter last week about the increase in the public’s opinion that the government ought to be doing more. A summary of the last twenty years of polling by NBC shows that, while there seems to be a reactive effect based on the party of the president, support for increased government activity has generally been on the rise.
The combination of Biden’s approval across several categories, public support of his proposals (with the exception of his original cap on refugees, which he then raised after public outcry), and the public support of increased government activity gives Biden a strong argument in pressing congress to get his progressive policies pushed through to his desk. Despite the popularity, his $4 trillion infrastructure and families plan largely depends on what the senate parliamentarian will allow into a reconciliation bill (which only needs majority approval, rather than a filibuster-proof 60 votes) and the votes of a few moderate Democratic senators, since the bills will receive no Republican support in the senate.
Outlook for the Coming Weeks
I’ll be taking a break for the next few weeks, due to a flurry of weekend trips/weddings now that I/most of my friends are fully vaccinated. I’ll continue to work on the database in the background (notably, I need to dive deep into the census bureau demographic data, which needs a lot of fixing). I’ll likely write a short update in either late May or early June.
As always, you can find my work on Github.
Citation
@online{rieke2021,
author = {Rieke, Mark},
title = {President of the {Polls}},
date = {2021-05-05},
url = {https://www.thedatadiary.net/posts/2021-05-05-president-of-the-polls},
langid = {en}
}