Biden's infrastructure plan gets mixed review: poll

President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan is loaded with road repairs, internet upgrades and other initiatives that are widely popular on their own, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but U.S. public support declines when the initiatives are packed into a Democratic bill and sold as a Biden-backed plan.

Conway G.

Gittens

There's some good news and some bad news for the White House in a poll reacting to the reveal of President Biden's massive infrastructure plan.

Though the eye-popping $2 trillion proposal is filled with road repairs, internet upgrades and other initiatives that are widely popular on their own, U.S. public support declines in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, when all those goodies are rolled-up into a Democratic bill and sold as a Biden-backed plan.

According to the poll taken between March 31 and April 1st and released on Friday: An overwhelming majority, 79 percent, support a government-backed overhaul of transportation infrastructure: I'm talking roadways, railroads, bridges, tunnels.

The support numbers stay high when it comes to getting high-speed internet to all Americans...replacing lead pipes...and tax credits for renewable energy.

Americans are also largely supportive, according to the poll, to a corporate tax hike to pay for it all.

But.... public support appeared to fall when the survey got into the specifics.

When asked if they would support a jobs and infrastructure plan that was "recently released by the Biden administration:"Only 45% of Americans said they would support it, 27% said they were opposed, and the remaining 28% said they were not sure.

The decline largely reflects a nation that remains split along party lines.

Only about two in 10 Republicans and three in 10 independents said they supported a Biden infrastructure plan, compared with seven out of 10 Democrats, according to the poll.

That would suggest, with a Senate that's evenly divided and Republican leadership already vowing to do what they can so the plan as-is never sees the light of day, President Biden has his work cut out for him when it comes to selling his plan to the American people and ultimately getting it done.