Poll backs monthly stimulus payments, rejects biz bailouts

Roosevelt Institute calls Republican McConnell plan on coronavirus ‘a failure’

Voters across all age and sex demographics and all political affiliations reject a business bailout in the coronavirus stimulus package being debated in Congress. (Shutterstock)

Voters across all age and sex demographics and all political affiliations reject a business bailout in the coronavirus stimulus package being debated in Congress. (Shutterstock)

By Ted Cox

Voters across the political spectrum support monthly stimulus payments to individuals to address the economic downturn from the coronavirus outbreak, and they overwhelmingly reject corporate bailouts, according to a new poll conducted for the Economic Security Project.

The poll of 583 likely voters, conducted Friday by Data for Progress, found that 63 percent favored monthly payments as opposed to 26 percent favoring a one-time payment. Asked what they personally would prefer, two-thirds, 66 percent, said they’d prefer monthly payments until the COVID-19 crisis is concluded, and that held consistent for all age and sex demographics and all political affiliations.

Men, women, under 45 and over 45, college or no college, African American or white, Democrats, independents, and even Republicans: all supported monthly stimulus payments by a majority of about two-thirds. The lowest level of support came from Republicans, at 60 percent, and the highest from Democrats, at 72 percent, and African Americans, at 71 percent.

Opposition to corporate bailouts in the latest coronavirus aid package being debated in Congress was even more pronounced. Some 97 percent of likely U.S. voters, across all age and sex demographics and political affiliations, prefer “that government stimulus be sent directly to Americans as checks until the economic downturn is over,” instead of “to large corporations such as oil companies, hotel companies, and airlines as a bailout.” Some 97 percent of both Democrats and Republicans shared that attitude. Independents had the lowest support, but even there 93 percent favored monthly payments.

Democrats in Congress came under criticism Monday for opposing a $2 trillion stimulus package pulled together by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, but a study of the proposal by the Roosevelt Institute found good reasons to back away.

The institute’s Mike Konczal set five goals for the package: (1) help people directly by providing cash, (2) support workers, (3) help states and municipalities, (4) prevent business collapse, (5) and prevent unconditional support for industries that go bankrupt. According to Konczal, the McConnell plan doesn’t supply enough money — $1,200 a person and $500 a dependent — instead of the $2,000 a person including dependents that the institute believes necessary. It also provides no money to states and municipalities, and the $300 billion in loans for small businesses is “inadequate,” meaning “many will be unable to navigate the process before funding runs out,” while “banks receive excessive funding for bearing no risk.”

A $500 billion corporate bailout, which U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth has called a “slush fund,” likewise was rejected, as it includes “no serious terms regarding governance or labor reforms,” as “the secretary can waive terms and also not disclose who receives bailouts for six months.”

“The McConnell bill is a failure on four of these five dimensions and will struggle on the fifth,” Konczal writes. “Serious changes will be needed in order for this bill to match the scale of our crisis.”

The Economic Policy Institue similarly listed five conditions for the stimulus package:

  • Firms that receive taxpayer dollars must not be permitted to lay off workers, or to outsource or offshore work.

  • Firms that receive taxpayer dollars must not be permitted to cut workers’ pay or benefits, or to reopen union contracts.

  • Firms that receive taxpayer dollars should respect workers’ rights and must be required to remain neutral in any union organizing effort.

  • Firms that receive taxpayer dollars should include workers on corporate boards.

  • Firms that receive taxpayer dollars should limit CEO compensation.

  • Firms that receive taxpayer dollars should be prohibited from stock buybacks.