“There’s no real public support for ending social distancing, and there’s very real public support for more spending, with the sort of top priorities being keeping small businesses open, preventing states and localities from having to cut services, and checks to Americans,” Sean McElwee, a founder of the left-wing polling firm Data for Progress, said in an interview.
In a Quinnipiac University poll taken just after Mr. Trump signed a stimulus bill for more than $2 trillion, four in five respondents expressed approval of the legislation — even after being reminded of the price tag. By more than two to one, the respondents said they wanted Congress to follow with another stimulus bill to confront the pandemic.
American voters don’t want the spending to be unmitigated. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed that by a margin of 48 percent to 40 percent, Americans were more likely to say they were concerned about spending too much and driving up the deficit than they were that the government could spend too little and prolong the recession. This is in keeping with a long national history of favoring economic caution.
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