Poll: Majority Consider Second Stimulus ‘Essential to America’s COVID Comeback’

A majority of Americans consider a second round of stimulus checks from the federal government “essential to America’s COVID comeback,” a Rasmussen Reports survey released on Monday showed.

“Congress is now debating a proposed second coronavirus stimulus check that could run as high as $2,000,” the survey, conducted December 30 among 707 likely U.S. voters, said to respondents.

“Which is closer to your thinking – that a second stimulus check is essential to America’s COVID comeback or that a second check would push the federal budget deficit dangerously higher?” it asked.

Sixty-eight percent of Americans said that the second round of checks, following the $1,200 distributed earlier last year, is “essential to America’s COVID comeback,” although nearly a quarter of Americans, 24 percent, disagreed, contending that a second check would “push the federal budget deficit dangerously higher.” However, support for a second round of stimulus checks, which the government has already begun to distribute, transcends party lines, with a majority of Democrats, 82 percent, and Republicans, 58 percent, supporting the action.

The survey’s margin of error is  +/- 4 percentage points.

The Senate effectively blocked a House standalone measure, which would have raised stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000 — something President Trump has been pushing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) instead proposed a separate measure to raise checks to $2,000, while also addressing Section 230 and establishing a commission to investigate allegations of voter fraud. Nevertheless, the Kentucky Republican last week dismissed calls to raise checks to $2,000 as “socialism for rich people.”

“Borrowing from our grandkids to do socialism for rich people is a terrible way to get help to families who actually need it,” he told colleagues last week.

His remark drew a pointed critique from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who said it is “not socialism,” but rather “necessary in the times in which we live.”

“Mr. President, keep fighting for the American people who are suffering,” he said, adding, “Insist on a standalone vote”: