Direct Stimulus Checks
Strong Majorities Support Regular Checks Tied to the Public Health Emergency or Economic Conditions
03. 12. 2021
A strong majority of voters in key U.S. Senate states support recurring stimulus checks.
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A strong majority of voters in key U.S. Senate states support recurring stimulus checks. Polling has consistently found stimulus checks to be widely popular, but our recent survey provides strong evidence that recurring checks tied to the public health emergency or to economic conditions are widely popular in 2022 Senate battleground states and other politically-important states like CA and WV.
A February survey in AZ, CA, GA, NV, NH, PA, and WV finds robust, 2-to-1 support for recurring checks, tied to the public health emergency (58% support / 30% oppose). Voters passionately support recurring checks instead of a one-time payment – with 51% of voters strongly supporting this proposal.
Majorities of Democrats, Independents, and voters across racial and ethnic divides support recurring checks, instead of a one-time payment. Even among self-identified Republican voters, support for the issue is nearly even.
A plurality (39%) of voters think additional stimulus checks are the most important component of the upcoming Biden economic recovery bill. The next most popular potential element tested of the Build Back Better package is “Investing in U.S. manufacturing, to boost American-made products and “Buy American” programs” (18%) – followed by “Rebuilding our infrastructure, including roads, bridges, rail, and expanded broadband” (12%).
Voters across partisan and demographic spectrums prefer that the economy, rather than Congress, dictate when recurring payments are issued. 62% of voters believe “payments should be tied to the economy, with payments made whenever economic indicators like the unemployment rate show that we are in a recession” as opposed to 24% who stated that “Congress should be responsible for determining when additional payments should be made to Americans.”
Underscoring the need for recurring payments, more than 40% of people who expect to receive a $1,400 check say it will last them a month or less, and 70% say it would last them three months or less. Regardless of partisanship or demographics, the vast majority of check recipients say that a single payment wouldn’t sustain them for more than a few months.
By a wide 52-point margin, there is strong support for raising taxes on millionaires to fund recurring checks (71% support / 19% oppose). Even a majority of Republicans (+24) favor this proposal. Voters also support repealing the Trump/GOP tax cuts by a 2:1 margin (56% support / 27% oppose) as a way to pay for additional stimulus checks.
