Joe Biden
President Joe Biden waves after being sworn in during his inauguration on the West Front of the US Capitol on January 20, 2021, in Washington, DC.
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  • 60% of Republicans support Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, a new Morning Consult poll found.
  • Only 17% of total voters opposed the president’s stimulus package.
  • The opinions of Republican voters conflict with those of Republican lawmakers, who say the plan is too costly. 
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President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan is steadily making its way to a full House vote, and although Republican lawmakers have been in staunch opposition of the bill, Republican voters seem to largely support it.

A Morning Consult/Politico poll released on Wednesday found that the public overwhelmingly supports the stimulus plan that includes $1,400 stimulus checks and extended unemployment benefits, with support from 70% of Democrats, 71% of independents, and 60% of Republicans, with only 30% of Republicans saying they somewhat or strongly oppose the package. The poll is further evidence of support for the plan among Republican voters, as Insider previously reported that at least several aspects of the plan are popular with that cohort.

Only 17% of voters overall said they opposed the package.

“The stimulus package and Biden’s other economic plans have enjoyed support from voters so far,” the report said. “Sixty-four percent of voters said in January that they strongly backed additional economic stimulus, and 51 percent said in a separate poll that the federal government should continue spending even at the expense of the national debt.”

The poll also found that 56% of voters supported Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, and 67% supported the president’s executive order to expand food stamp access.

Since Biden first revealed the price tag of his stimulus plan, Republicans in Congress have been opposed to it, saying the plan is too costly. They even introduced a counter-stimulus proposal that was a third of the price tag of the president's plan, but Democrats have remained committed to passing the president's plan through budget reconciliation. 

The House is planning to vote on the president's stimulus package on Friday, and the ruling from the Senate parliamentarian on whether a $15 minimum wage increase can be included in the reconciliation bill - which Republicans, and some conservative Democrats, have strongly opposed - is expected to come on Thursday. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont tweeted on Wednesday, "You cannot tell me that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is a radical idea."

Once the House bill goes to the Senate, Republican senators seem likely to entirely vote against the legislation, echoing how former President Barack Obama's stimulus from 2009, addressing an economic crisis inherited from a Republican presidency, received zero Republican votes in the House. That package received three Republican votes in the Senate, including from moderate Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who soon afterward switched parties.

Collins seems unlikely to support this one, however. She said on Tuesday that the lack of outreach from the White House was behind the partisan split in support for the bill, and on the same day, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the "$1.9 trillion stimulus bill is a clunker." With Collins and Romney unlikely to support this plan, it may not get a single Republican vote in the Senate.

Read the original article on Business Insider