The latest numbers are out from Scott Rasmussen this week and they contain some slightly better news for President Joe Biden in one area and a landslide of bad news in the rest. First, let’s start with the “good news.” The President’s approval rating crept back up to 43%. He’s still significantly underwater, with a majority (52%) disapproving, but that’s still a minor improvement from the 40% approval rate he rang up earlier this month. One thing that hasn’t changed is that the 21% who “strongly approve” are dwarfed by the 39% who “strongly disapprove.”

The Build Back Better Act fares far worse than the president’s personal approval numbers. As Rasmussen notes, this is largely driven by the fact that most Americans have largely “tuned out” of the debate over the bill. And of the few who are paying attention, most think it will make things worse rather than better.

The legislation being considered in Congress is unlikely to boost the president’s numbers partly because voters have largely tuned out. Just 19% recognize both that the infrastructure bill passed and that the Build Back Better plan has not.

The lack of voter awareness about his legislative efforts may, in fact, be a blessing for the president. At a time when just 9% believe that the worst of inflation is behind us, 56% believe the president’s plan will make things worse by increasing inflation.

Beyond that, the Build Back Better plan–called the Big Government Socialism Bill by Republicans– has a number of extraordinarily unpopular provisions.

“Extraordinarily unpopular” isn’t an overstatement. When informed that the BBB authorizes various payments to illegal aliens, 60% disapproved while only 28% approved. As far as the bill’s provision to give the IRS more access to personal financial information and bank transactions, a whopping 73% are opposed. A rather obscure facet providing a tax credit of up to $50K to print journalists wasn’t popular either, with only 19% approving of it. (That likely says a lot more about the MSM than it does the Biden administration.)

Guaranteed basic income, no matter what label you put on it, is also a non-starter. If a person is physically capable of working, 78% believe that they should have to actively look for a job before receiving cash payments from the government. A slim majority (53%) want to keep Medicare the same as it is now, while just 34% want to see it expanded.

When it comes to the government’s response to the pandemic, authoritarianism is growing less and less popular. Nearly half of respondents (49%) said that “relaxing vaccine mandates and mask requirements” would be better for the economy. Only 30% disagreed. A significantly larger portion (61%) were in favor of relaxing such mandates for police officers, firefighters, and first responders.

While we’ve discussed this here before, it clearly bears repeating. The various policy items being discussed in this survey are essentially a laundry list of the “reforms” that are being relentlessly pushed by Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. But these ideas are not popular with the public. And if the BBB is eventually passed into law and the GOP does an even modestly competent job of bringing all of these changes to the attention of American voters, things will not be looking good for the Party of the Donkey in the midterms. I still find it bizarre that the left is so completely unaware of how much of the public is flatly opposed to these socialist-based plans.