NEWSWEEK

By Steve Friess

June 1, 2020

What also seems clear—and Biden supporters hope will ultimately weigh in their candidate’s favor—is that the public, for now at least, seems receptive to dramatic New Deal-like ideas about what’s needed to restore the country to economic health and open to Congress spending trillions of dollars to get the job done. “It’s fair to say that virtually every American politician has now voted for additional funds to support the American economy, so we’ve shattered the notion that the federal budget deficit is some sort of obstacle to additional federal spending,” says Duke University economist Sandy Darity, referring to the $3 trillion already spent by Congress in pandemic relief this spring.

Recent polls back up a striking receptivity to big economic thinking, and not only among Democrats. In late April, the left-leaning Groundwork Collective reported that 71 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that the federal government “should take major, sweeping action to address the economic impact of the pandemic,” including 68 percent of independents and 63 percent of Republicans. And in late May, Navigator Research found that 67 percent of Americans supported Pelosi’s $3 trillion HEROES Act, including 80 percent of independents and 56 percent of Fox News viewers.

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