Poll: Nearly 70 Percent of Americans Do Not Know What is in Democrats' Spending Bills

Landon Mion | October 31, 2021 4:00 PM

A new poll published Sunday showed that the vast majority of Americans, about 7 in 10, know little about what is included in Democrats' infrastructure and social spending bills.

While 55 percent of respondents said they were following congressional negotiations about the bills, only 30 percent indicated that they know a "great deal" or "good amount" about what is in the spending package.

Nearly 45 percent of respondents said they knew "just some" about what the bills might consist of compared to 25 percent who responded by saying they knew "little or nothing."

The poll found that 32 percent of Americans believed the proposals would negatively impact people like them, while 25 percent said thought it would be beneficial to them. Meanwhile, 18 percent did not think the bills would make any difference, and 24 percent did not know what kind of an impact it would have on them and people like them.

And among Democrats, only 47 percent believe that their party's bills would help people like them.

When asked how they think the legislation would impact the economy, 34 percent of those surveyed said that the proposals would help it while another 34 percent said the bills would hurt it. Meanwhile, just six percent said the spending package would "have no effect" on the economy.

This comes after the Biden administration on Thursday announced the framework for a scaled back version of the reconciliation bill. The bill had to be cut down from its previous cost of $3.5 trillion after moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) said they would not back the spending package until the price was reduced.

The legislation is now expected to cost well under $2 trillion, which shifts the focus to whether or not progressives in the House and Senate would support the new version of the bill.