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Tag: bipartisan support
Poll: Americans Blame Republicans, Not Biden, For Partisan Divide On Relief

Poll: Americans Blame Republicans, Not Biden, For Partisan Divide On Relief

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

Congressional Republicans' effort to pin blame for the lack of bipartisanship over the American Rescue Plan on President Joe Biden has failed badly.

A Pew Research Center poll released on Tuesday found that 57 percent of Americans believe the Biden administration made a "good faith effort" to work with Republicans on the mammoth pandemic relief legislation. Forty percent said they did not believe the administration had made such an effort.

Among Democrats, the number of those polled who answered yes to the question was unsurprisingly high — 87 percent. Among Republicans, that figure was much lower, at just 23 percent.

Asked if Republican leaders did the same with the administration, just 42 percent of total respondents said yes and 55 percent said no.

Biden announced in January that he would ask Congress to approve the $1.9 trillion legislation to provide $1,400 relief checks for most Americans; unemployment benefits to those out of work due to the pandemic; tax cuts for working families; and hundreds of billions more in funding to help schools reopen safely, assist cash-strapped state and local governments, and improve coronavirus vaccination and testing.

From the beginning, Republicans opposed the legislation; not a single one voted for it at any step of the process.

On February 1, ten Senate Republicans countered with a proposal that would have given Biden less than a third of what he requested, saying they were doing so "in the spirit of bipartisanship and unity." Biden hosted them at the White House for a lengthy meeting, but made clear he would not accept an insufficient bill.

Rather than suggest an alternative that was closer to what Biden had asked for, GOP lawmakers then began a campaign to attack the bill as too partisan.

After blocking a House-passed $3 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in the Senate last year, Republicans tried to rewrite history and pretend that congressional coronavirus efforts had always been bipartisan.

In reality, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to consider any relief legislation at all from May until September, calling this "the reasonable thing to do" and claiming, "It allowed us to learn the coronavirus didn't mysteriously disappear."

After Congress passed less than a trillion in relief in December, Senate Republican Whip John Thune made clear that his party would try to block any further relief under Biden.

Seizing on Biden's inaugural address call for "unity," Republicans accused the new president and the Democratic majorities in Congress of somehow breaking that promise by proceeding with the $1.9 trillion legislation against their wishes.

Then, after unanimously trying to block the bill, Republicans denounced it as not "bipartisan" enough.

While the bill met partisan disagreement in the Congress, it proved popular among voters in both parties.

A Morning Consult/Politico poll, released Wednesday, found 75 percent of registered voters support the $1.9 trillion relief plan — 18 percent are against it.

Among Republican voters, 59 percent support the bill and just 35 percent oppose.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Obama Appears To Have Rare Bipartisan Support On Islamic State

Obama Appears To Have Rare Bipartisan Support On Islamic State

By Kathleen Hennessey and Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and his advisers appear to have convinced Americans that the Islamic State militants wreaking havoc in Iraq and Syria are a threat to the United States. This week he’ll try to prove he’s capable of taking them on.

In laying out a plan to use U.S. air power, multinational partners, and proxy fighters to “ultimately destroy” the al-Qaida offshoot, Obama appears to have landed in a rare moment of bipartisan backing. Polls released over the weekend show that sizable majorities of both Republicans and Democrats support Obama’s tactics.

But the support hasn’t immediately translated into a clear political boost for the president or a surge of congressional support for him. In one survey, most Americans said they have little confidence that the plan will succeed and added that his remarks didn’t change their opinion of Obama.

The skepticism reflects the months of sagging public confidence in the president, particularly when it comes to foreign affairs. A summer of crises in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, and Iraq and Syria has sunk Obama’s approval rating to near lows in some polls. Both friend and foe have criticized the president for his seeming indecisiveness or tentative reaction to global trouble. Democrats running in tight races have kept a safe distance.

The doubts have been clear in Congress, where GOP lawmakers grappled Monday with how to support a strategy from a president they say they do not trust. Meanwhile, administration officials tried to persuade foreign leaders to go all in.

At a conference in Paris on Monday, key players Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates agreed to support the Iraqi government in its fight against the Islamic State “by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance.” But the statement made no reference to taking the fight to Syria, the extremist group’s stronghold.

Pentagon officials announced Monday that the United States had expanded the fight on its own, with airstrikes launched southwest of Baghdad that destroyed an Islamic State fighting position firing on Iraqi government forces. The attack was the first to be conducted as part of the expanded mission announced by Obama last week to help Iraqi troops mount a vigorous new offense against the militant group.

On the diplomatic front, the White House has scheduled a week of events that could burnish the president’s image as commander in chief and demonstrate his willingness to use military might.

Obama is slated Wednesday to visit U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, to huddle with advisers planning newly expanded military operations in Iraq and Syria. The visit will focus in part on how to manage the emerging coalition of allies, senior administration officials said Monday. The president is also expected to address troops at the base.

The visit will follow a similar briefing Tuesday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he’ll outline a new effort to use U.S. military resources to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The schedule illustrates Obama’s sustained engagement on national security issues, according to senior administration officials, who would not be quoted talking about political strategy. They acknowledged there is more work to do in building support on Capitol Hill.

On Monday, Republican leaders unveiled an alternative to the White House’s request to arm Syrian fighters who oppose the government of President Bashar Assad for battle against Islamic State. The revised proposal added a hefty dose of congressional oversight in an attempt to soothe Republicans wanting to endorse plans to take on Islamic State, but wary of giving the president their backing.

The GOP proposal would require the Pentagon to present to Congress its plan for vetting and arming a Syrian opposition group at least 15 days prior to the first time such support is provided, and update lawmakers every 90 days to determine whether it’s working. A vote could come as soon as Wednesday.

Republicans’ qualified support for Obama’s strategy was in line with the public surveys. Six in 10 Democrats and a slightly larger share of Republicans said they backed Obama’s plan, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Monday. Self-identified independents were more skeptical, but overall, Americans supported Obama’s plan by about 53 percent to 29 percent, with 19 percent unsure, the poll found.

But the support came with sizable doubts.

Fewer than 1 in 5 of those surveyed by Pew said they thought U.S. military action would make America safer from a terrorist attack, while about one-third said they thought the U.S.-led campaign would increase the chances of being attacked.

Similarly, although nearly two-thirds of Americans said they supported Obama’s strategy, 70 percent said they did not have confidence that it would succeed in degrading or eliminating the threat the group poses, according to a separate poll conducted after his speech last week by the Annenberg Center for NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.

That survey left little sign that Obama’s prime-time speech outlining his strategy had changed his political standing. One in 5 respondents said they walked away with a less favorable opinion of the president, while 26 percent said they had a more favorable opinion. Most — 53 percent — said the speech made no difference. The poll showed his approval rating at about 40 percent.

Administration officials argued Monday that it matters less how the public views Obama and his handling of foreign policy in general than how it views his plans. On that measure, they noted, the president’s policy scores well.

Still, there’s little doubt his Democratic allies are watching the president’s overall approval rating closely. Analysts say a rising anxiety about a new threat compounded by a broader mood of unease about the economy and discontent with Washington could only mean bad news for the president — and his party.

Allies said the president needs more time. After years of reluctance to re-engage in new wars, the public, particularly Democrats, wants to be convinced that the involvement is limited and necessary.

“He has said it,” said Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and, until recently, Obama’s ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “Now he has to say it twice, say it again, say it constantly.”

Republicans had a harsher assessment.

Voters see “the president himself and his lack of foreign policy as part of the problem and the reason we’re facing the problems we’re facing right now,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster and strategist.

AFP Photo

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Poll: House Republicans Face Political Risk For Not Extending Unemployment Benefits

Poll: House Republicans Face Political Risk For Not Extending Unemployment Benefits

With temporary federal benefits for long-term unemployed Americans set to expire on December 28, a new Public Policy Polling poll finds that bipartisan majorities in Republican-controlled swing districts overwhelmingly support an extension of the program – something the GOP opposes and refused to include in the newest budget deal.

The PPP poll, released on Monday, shows that some vulnerable Republican congressmemembers risk losing support from voters over their stance on the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.

In each of the districts – California’s 31st, Colorado’s 6th, Michigan’s 1st, Illinois’ 13th, and Ohio’s 8th – voters said they were less likely to re-elect the incumbent if their representative refused to extend the program.

Republican congressman Gary Miller represents the district with the greatest bipartisan support for an extension of unemployment benefits: 68 percent of voters say they want the benefits continued as opposed to 28 percent who do not. More notably, Republicans voiced support for an extension by 54 percent to 41 percent.

Similarly, in the districts represented by Dan Benishek (R-MI) and Rodney Davis (R-IL), majorities of voters support extending the program, 66 percent to 29 percent. In Michigan’s 1st district, 60 percent of Republicans say the benefits should be extended past the new year, and in Illinois’ 13th district, 53 percent say the same.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says the progress showed in November’s job report should “discourage calls for more government ‘stimulus’,” but the voters in his district disagree — 63 percent want the program extended, while 34 percent do not. A majority of Republicans – 52 percent – also support an extension.

The only district in which a majority of Republicans did not voice support for an extension was Colorado’s 6th district, currently held by Mike Coffman (R). Still, 63 percent of voters say they want to see the program extended, and a plurality of Republicans – 48 percent – say the same.

With the poll also showing low approval ratings for the Republican lawmakers – Miller with 29 percent, Coffman with 42 percent, Davis with 33 percent, Benishek with 41 percent, and Boehner with 40 percent – there’s a chance that “voting to cut off benefits for unemployed people struggling to find work would make their existing problems worse,” as PPP director Tom Jensen said in a release accompanying the poll.

Still, it’s also possible that the issue will not be as politically salient in 2014. By then, voters may have prioritized other issues besides the extension of unemployment benefits — which is in the news now, with the passing of the budget deal and a looming expiration date.

Jeremy Funk of Americans United for Change, which funded the PPP poll, argues that Republicans should do what is “not just in America’s economic interest” but in “their own political interest.”

Americans United for Change also points out that congressional Democrats have been alone in their fight for extending the emergency unemployment benefits. A week ago, the liberal group posted a video highlighting the battle that Democrats can use to their advantage. You can watch the video below:

Video:Americans United via YouTube

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr