A second COVID-19 relief package may not be finalized before the election in less than two weeks, despite its extraordinary bipartisan popularity with registered voters.
The Trump Administration and Democrats in Congress have rushed to reach an agreement in recent days — an effort that may have been newly hindered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, who reportedly advised the White House to avoid striking a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. The development comes as the Senate navigates a vote to extend the Paycheck Protection Program, an emergency loan initiative to incentivize small businesses to avoid layoffs.
The latest Yahoo News/YouGov Poll shows that a second COVID-19 relief package for workers and businesses would earn bipartisan support. Four in five (79%) registered voters say Congress should strike a deal to help those hurt by the outbreak. That is a sentiment held by 86% of Democrats, three-quarters (78%) of Independents, and about seven in 10 (72%) Republicans.
About two-thirds (66%) of registered voters want the Senate to prioritize a COVID-19 relief package over its other high-profile priority — voting on the nomination of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Amy Coney Barrett. Nearly nine in 10 Democrats (87%) unsurprisingly prefer a COVID-19 stimulus deal, but so do three in five (62%) Independents and two in five (41%) Republicans.
A similar number of Trump supporters (38%) want economic stimulus prioritized over Barrett’s confirmation, but a majority (53%) would prefer to see her seated first.
The failure to compromise on a stimulus deal seems unlikely to negatively impact the executive branch. In the poll conducted October 16-18, two in five (40%) registered voters blamed Pelosi for the failure to agree on a stimulus bill, and three in 10 (31%) blame McConnell. Only 16% believe President Trump is at fault.
Slightly fewer than half (46%) of Independents and four in five (80%) Republicans cast the blame on the Democrat. However, most Democrats (56%) blame McConnell for the delay, while a quarter (25%) hold President Trump responsible.
See the toplines and crosstabs from this week’s Yahoo News/YouGov Poll
Methodology: The Yahoo! News survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,583 U.S. registered voters interviewed online between October 16 – 18, 2020. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. The margin of error for the sample was 4.0%
Image: Getty
