With Senate Democrats preparing to push individual votes on the component parts of the American Jobs Act, they do so knowing that the public is on their side. Mark Murray reports on the latest NBC News poll.
Even though the United States Senate on Tuesday blocked President Obama’s jobs bill, the legislation’s specifics — as well as the idea of taxing the wealthy to pay for it — are popular with the American public, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
When asked simply if Congress should pass the legislation or not, 30 percent of respondents answer yes, while 22 percent say no; 44 percent have no opinion.
But when the legislation’s details are included in a follow-up question — that it would cut payroll taxes, fund new road construction, extend unemployment benefits, and that it would be paid for by increasing taxes on the wealthy — 63 percent say they favor the bill and 32 percent oppose it.
As has been the case, support for the overall package is lukewarm, probably because the president’s approval ratings have slipped to low levels. But as with polling on health care reform, the American mainstream may be skeptical of the plan in its entirety, but folks love what’s actually in the plan.
In fact, with 63% of Americans supporting the president’s jobs ideas, it appears that the only thing that’s more popular are tax increases on the rich — the NBC/WSJ found 64% believe it’s a “good idea” to ask the wealthy and corporations to pay more.
In case this isn’t obvious, literally every Republican in Congress refuses to even consider both the job-creation measures and the calls for additional sacrifices from millionaires and billionaires.
With poll numbers like these, is it any wonder Democrats intend to keep pushing forward on this?
