WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden enjoys an early presidential honeymoon, with 60% of Americans approving of his job performance so far and even more supportive of his approach to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
At a time of deep political polarization in America, support for Biden’s pandemic response extends over party lines. Overall, 70% of Americans support the Democratic president’s handling of the virus response, including 44% of Republicans.
Still, Biden is facing more skepticism from Americans about the economy, which has been ravaged by the pandemic. Fifty-five percent of Americans approve of Biden’s approach to the economy so far, and 63% say the US economy is in bad shape, according to the AP-NORC survey. Republicans are also less likely to lean Biden on the economy than on the pandemic, with only 17% backing his fiscal stewardship.
Less than two months after his presidencyBiden has made the pandemic his central focus, urging Americans to follow strict social distancing and mask guidelines and vow to accelerate the distribution of critical vaccinesHe also claims that the economy will not fully recover until the spread of the virus is under control.
In the meantime, to address financial shortages, he asks Congress to adopt a $ 1.9 trillion pandemic rescue plan that would make direct payments to millions of Americans and increase funds to state and local governments.
The measure has already passed the HouseBut Biden has to compromise to keep all Democratic senators behind the measure, including agreeing this week to qualify for $ 1,400 stimulus checks. In a concession to moderate Democratic senators, Biden agreed that individuals who earn more than $ 80,000 a year and couples who earn more than $ 160,000 will not receive any benefits. Biden’s original proposal extended the stimulus funds to Americans with higher annual wages.
The administration estimates that 158.5 million households will still receive checks under the Senate compromise.
The prospect of a pandemic bill is welcome news to John Villegas, 58, an Illinois Democrat who supports Biden in dealing with both the virus response and the economy.
“With the closure of so many companies, a lot of people are suffering,” said Villegas, calling Biden’s approach a “180-degree shift” from his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Trump argued that the U.S. economy could not afford the blow that came from imposing restrictions on business and travel. The worst fears of economists were averted as Republican states followed Trump’s lead and opposed restrictions, but COVID-19 cases skyrocketed. More than 520,000 people died in the United States of the virus of the past year.
Despite their different approaches to managing the economy during the pandemic, Biden’s endorsement ratings for the economy are similar to Trump’s, whose approach to the economy has been consistently supported by about half of Americans since the virus emerged. The main difference: that level of support made the economy Trump’s strongest problem, while it’s a relative weakness for Biden compared to Americans’ views on his handling of the pandemic and other issues.
Reflecting the bias that continues to rage in the US, many Americans’ views on the economy have changed since the new president was inaugurated.In December, 67% of Republicans and only 15% of Democrats described the economy as good. Now 35% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats describe the economy positively. There has been little change in overall growth or unemployment during that time.
Biden’s handling of the pandemic could well determine the course of his presidency and the political capital he has to pursue important legislation on other matters. Democrats are urgently putting up bills for infrastructure investments, police reforms and voting rightsBiden has also vowed to tackle climate change and build on the expansive health insurance coverage measure signed into law when he served as vice president of Barack Obama.
His promises of action have earned him solid approval numbers on some of those fronts. For example, about 6 in 10 Americans say they approve of Biden’s handling of health care and race relations.
Overall, 48% of Americans say the country is moving in the right direction, compared to 37% who said so in December. The poll also shows that 43% of Americans expect things to get better in the country overall next year, while 34% think it will get worse and 23% think they will stay about the same.
Biden herself has been consciously cautious in predicting when life in the US will return to a pre-pandemic normal. Even if he promises that the US will have adequate vaccination for all Americans by the end of May, he said it could be the end of the year or early 2022 before Americans can stop wearing masks or return to their normal activities completely.
His team’s goal in setting expectationsPromising too little, then overdelivery.
The AP-NORC survey of 1,434 adults was conducted Feb. 23-March 1 using a sample of NORC’s Probability-Based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
Online:
AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/