Biden, Democrats failing to sell agenda to American people: POLL

[brooklynite]

Source: ABC News

Negotiations on the infrastructure and social program bills have consumed Capitol Hill for months. Still, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday finds Democrats are failing to sell the legislation to the public, who are broadly unaware of what is in the spending packages or skeptical they would help people like themselves, or the economy, if signed into law.

President Joe Biden was unable to secure a legislative win before departing on his second foreign trip since taking office, even after he laid out a framework for the package focused on social programs and climate change around which he believes Democrats can rally. He pitched that package, which no longer includes paid family and medical leave or free community college, as a "historic economic" opportunity on Thursday, but this poll reflects the continued confusion and intraparty mistrust over these bills.

Although a majority (55%) of the public is following news about the negotiations at least somewhat closely, about 7 in 10 (69%) Americans said they know just some or little to nothing about what's in both bills. Fewer than half (31%) said they know a great deal or good amount. Despite Republicans having sat on the sidelines while the White House works exclusively with congressional Democrats to get both bills to the president's desk, the lack of knowledge extends across all parties.

Americans also do not feel like these bills would help them or the U.S. economy if they become law.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-democrats-failing-sell-agenda-american-people-poll/story?id=80877850

[ColinC]

1. The agenda was sold when he won the election. And the vast majority support it

However, the gutting of significant measures is the part that is hard to sell.

[sop]

3. "The gutting of significant measures is the part that is hard to sell."

Exactly.

[JohnSJ]

13. I disagree. Even if the original 6.5 trillion bill was intact, the press really has no motivation

Last edited Sun Oct 31, 2021, 07:26 PM - Edit history (1)

to broadly cover the contents

Democrats in disarray sell their hyperbole

[mountain grammy]

19. Exactly

[sop]

48. Every time the press covers the ongoing sausage-making, we find out something else has been

stripped from the original bill. Things most voters really wanted. I'm not blaming the Biden administration or congressional leadership for the recalcitrance of a few within the Democratic coalition, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to sell what's left of this legislation.

[Rebl2]

54. So true!

[RKP5637]

5. Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[hamsterjill]

6. Well said.

n/t

[George II]

16. How can something that has never existed before be "gutted"? Just because it doesn't have.....

...EVERYTHING that everyone wanted doesn't mean it was "gutted".

Many of the things that were removed probably shouldn't have been in these bills in the first place - they should be proposed and presented on their own merit.

[ColinC]

18. The most popular provisions like paid family leave, prescription drug pricing, child

Credit, etc. all should have been in the bill and were so far effectively removed from the proposal. Or "gutted" from it, as I put it

[bluewater]

29. Those programs absolutely were gutted during the "negotiations"

Amazing, it's like some people think that we all don't remember the events of the last month.

[ColinC]

40. And my point of course is that Biden's agenda is incredibly popular

What may currently be being delivered however isn't quite his agenda.

[bluewater]

41. Exactly, Manchin and Sinema have taken an axe to several of the most popular Democratic proposals

[ColinC]

52. Yeah

Pretty sad

[Celerity]

58. you are attempting to rewrite history and lay out faulty revisionist narratives

you said

How can something that has never existed before be "gutted"?

Wrong. You constantly try to employ sophistry to completely reframe language, to try to recast the very linguistic definitions of concepts and their embedded meanings to falsely frame things to fit your spin attempts.

In this case you wilfully attempt to ignore the massive parts of Biden's agenda and programmes that have now been ripped out of his BBB framework proposal, and thus are now out of the final bill. The same gutting was done to his BIF framework proposal too, and to an even greater degree (almost 80% of his new spend stripped out).


Here is the BBB spending framework as put out by Biden, who made much of this the CORE of his agenda and campaign promises as well:

https://www.investopedia.com/here-s-what-s-in-the-usd1-trillion-infrastructure-bill-passed-by-the-senate-5196817

$135 billion for the Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry. Funding to be used to address forest fires, reduce carbon emissions, and address drought concerns.

$332 billion for the Banking Committee. Including investments in public housing, the Housing Trust Fund, housing affordability, and equity and community land trusts.

$198 billion for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. This would develop clean energy. (and remember, almost all environmental spend and tax credits were already gutted from the bi-partisan bill, as I have already shown)

$67 billion for the Environment and Public Works Committee. These monies would fund low-income solar and other climate-friendly technologies.

$1.8 trillion for the Finance Committee. This part of the bill is for investments in working families, the elderly, and the environment. It includes a tax cut for Americans making less than $400,000 a year, lowering the price of prescription drugs, and ensuring the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share of taxes. (this is prime funding here, and Manchinema want mass cuts here, which blows it up)

$726 billion for the Health, Labor, Education, and Pensions Committee. This addresses universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds, childcare for working families, tuition-free community college, funding for historically black colleges and universities, and an expansion of the Pell Grant for higher education.

$37 billion for the HSGAC Committee. This would electrify the federal vehicle fleet, electrify and rehab federal buildings, improve cybersecurity infrastructure, reinforce border management, invest in green-materials procurement, and invest in resilience. (agin most all was guttend from the other bill already)

$107 billion for the Judiciary Committee. These funds address establishing "lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants."

$20.5 billion for the Indian Affairs Committee. This addresses Native American health programs and facilities, education programs and facilities, housing programs, energy programs, resilience and climate programs, BIA programs and facilities, Native language programs, and the Native Civilian Climate Corps.

$25 billion for the Small Business Committee. This provides for small business access to credit, investment, and markets.

$18 billion for the Veterans Affairs Committee. This funds upgrades to veteran facilities.

$83 billion for the Commerce Committee. This goes to investments in technology, transportation, research, manufacturing, and economic development. It provides funding for coastal resiliency, healthy oceans investments, including the National Oceans and Coastal Security Fund and the National Science Foundation research and technology directorate.

More detail of the $3.5 trillion framework:

Update on The Build Back Better Act

https://www.ifpte.org/bbb-act

This September, Congressional Representatives and Senators working to advance a fiscal year 2022 budget reconciliation package that invests up to $3.5 trillion over 10 years in physical, social, and innovation infrastructure. This legislation, called the Build Back Better Act, is being crafted to include significant parts of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan and supports domestic manufacturing and R&D, resilient supply chains, affordable housing, advanced energy infrastructure and policies, education, healthcare, childcare, paid leave, labor law enforcement, and more. Through the budget reconciliation process, both the House and Senate can advance the legislation through a simple majority.

Typically, legislation in the Senate requires a procedural vote that needs a 60-vote supermajority to close debate before a bill can advance to a floor vote. If passed by the House, the legislation is expected to move through the Senate committees and finally to the Senate floor. After 20-hour Senate floor debate that cannot be obstructed by the 60-vote filibuster rule, the bill would move to a “vote-a-rama” amendment process where proposed amendments that are germane to the bill will be voted on without debate.

The budget reconciliation process moved forward on August 11 when the Senate passed a budget resolution — titled “S.Con.Res. 14, A Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2022.” The House of Representatives passed Senate Continuing Resolution 14 on August 24. Twelve committees in the House of Representatives have worked with corresponding committees in the Senate as well as the White House to craft legislative text for the Build Back Better Act. Currently, House and Senate leadership, committee chairs, and the White House are conferring and continuing to work on a Build Back Better bill that will have a majority of votes to pass the House and at least 50 votes (plus the vote of the Senate President/Vice President Kamala Harris) to pass in the Senate.

(you can right click and open image in new tab to see the text enlarged)












we already said bye bye to almost 80% of the bi-partisan bill's new spend/tax incentives

The Infrastructure Plan: What’s In and What’s Out (it's brutal)


Biden's original proposal:





What was left after Manchin, Sinema, and the so-called 'moderate' Rethugs (the very ones that Manchin and Sinema constantly hype as needing to be catered to) took a 2.05 trillion USD hatchet to it:

[LenaBaby61]

61. SAD & DISGUSTING how Manchin & Sinema got away with this 👆🏻

They did though

And the mostly corporate media's running like hell with it, which is hurting Dems chances early on from keeping the House

[quakerboy]

64. If we fail to pass a bill that will actually help voters

Then voters will fail to vote for Democrats.

[certainot]

20. it really doesn't matter what biden/dems do as long as we let 1500 coordinated radio stations pumel

at will all day long without challengee

it's the same thing as for obama and it's fucking ridiculous

people who then whine biden andd dems can't deliver, why vote, might as well be working for the GOP/putin - like in 2010

[malletgirl02]

36. Agreed

You have in the fucking New York Times an opinion piece claiming liberals are the intolerant ones because they won't abide by people who protest school board meetings due to schools taking basic steps to prevent the spread of a deadly disease and are outright racists. This makes me so angry

[certainot]

39. and dems let 87 universities support 260+ xlimbaugh stations while they attack school boards!

we let these 87 universities help republicans - without complaint

[LenaBaby61]

62. THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[melm00se]

28. The big picture is what got sold

in November.

It is the details that they need to sell now.

[Elessar Zappa]

2. Democrats have to get better at messaging.

There should be ad buys on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube selling the BBB bill.

[JohnSJ]

15. I think Democrats are not given much airtime for it. At the same time I think Jaime Harrison

has been a weak DNC chair, and needs to be more aggressive

Perez was a weak DNC chair, but he was more visible then Harrison.

Howard Dean is the example we should follow

[Lonestarblue]

32. The only emails I get from Harrison are just to ask for money.

There’s never any information about what actions he and the DNC are taking to support candidates or to register voters or to explain a strategy for winning elections. That said, more Democrats need to get air time on conservative media like Fox if the message is to get out to independents and more traditional Republicans. So far, Mayor Pete is the only one brave enough to do this. I doubt that persuadable, centrist voters watch MSNBC or read WaPo or NYT, but they would benefit from the infrastructure and reconciliation bills.

[JohnSJ]

33. Exactly. Same thing here

[whathehell]

22. Absolutely..They seem to be getting a little better

but they need, imo, to get a lot better.

[FoxNewsSucks]

4. Sanders and others have been "selling" it,

it's just that the corporate media spends far more time on "disarray" and the "monumental spending cost" aspect than they do on what is trying to be accomplished.

[RKP5637]

7. Yes, they do! I had been wondering if Biden should to a 15 min or so segment on

all TV stations and bullet-point the major parts of the bill. Then I was thinking, MSNBC, NBC would carry it, probably ABC, but RW ones would not, I doubt Fox would have anything to do with it ... OAN and others would sabotage it. That, is the F-ing problem in the US, a large segment of the media profits off selling hatred and sh** to the nation, especially Murdoch. The future of the US is screwed IMO with all of the hatred and misinformation sold/profited by some media.

[bluewater]

31. The problem was Manchin and Sinema kept hacking away at the agenda

Saying they would not support the Build Back Better bill if many of its most popular programs were in it.

Every time the President and other Democrats spoke up for the agenda, another chunk got eliminated trying to get Manchin and Sinema to support the bill in some form.

Are we all supposed to not remember that happening all this last month?

[JohnSJ]

8. I guess the media has nothing better to do then push the "Democrats in disarray" crap

with these mikey mouse polls

What the polls like this actually point out is the failure of the shallow media that exits in this country, and the media's superficial reporting

When 69% in this poll say they know little to nothing about what is in these bills, and yet in the same poll indicate that they don't believe these bills would help them or the U.S. economy, this is NOT a failure of Democrats trying to get the message out, because they are, this is a failure of a press who does NOT wish to cover the contents of the bills, but instead push disarray and division among Democrats, the Baldwin shooting, Britney Spears, donald trump, etc. etc. etc.

[PortTack]

24. This! Sick of it

[Hoyt]

9. Sure doesn't jive with the 70% to 80% support the bills. Hope knowledge improves.

[JohnSJ]

17. Sure is a contradiction, isn't it. Also when this polls says 69% know little about these bills,

and then in the next sentence say they don't believe this bill will help them or the economy, there is a major disconnect, that makes on wonder exactly what questions were asked

[ShazamIam]

10. Oh stop the Democratic and Biden don't control what the MSM will promote. They have been promoting

Republicans and conservative corporate policies and agendas for decades now.

[LiberalLovinLug]

63. Exactly. No one knows what good this bill will do because no one has been told.

Its like the MSM is afraid that they will be accused of promoting government, simply for telling the American public good things that will result in some new policy.

They have a desperate will to level the playing field. And in order to do that they think they should criticize both parties legislation equally. The only trouble is, Republicans don't ever offer any real legislation to help most Americans. Trump promised an infrastructure bill, promised a new medical insurance bill, but his biggest accomplishment was even more tax cuts to himself and his wealthy friends, to be paid for by the riff raff commoners.

They are being critical of Republicans lately...for legitiame reasons. But that is so uncomfortable for them that the only thing they can do is, instead of simply even tellilng what is in the bill and what it can do for their viewers, instead it becomes stories on how or why the Democrats are screwing up.

[bahboo]

11. same old shit for us....

this is of primary importance....MAKE people cover it by doing an all out blitz. Coordinate the message....hit it on multiple fronts...all that good stuff...

[cilla4progress]

12. You know who would be good at selling it?

The House progressives! There are some AMAZING TALENTED folks there! I'm talking about Cori Bush, Pramila Jayapal, Katie Porter, AOC. Some men in there, as well.

They have so much energy and a "person of the people" profile.

[Mysterian]

25. No! No! They have to "pay their dues" and obey the great "moderates"

who keep feeding us shit sandwiches.

[cilla4progress]

38. Aren't u missing this?

[George II]

14. Earlier today I saw this, which belies the tone of ABC's poll results:

New framework bolsters Biden’s hand as climate summit begins

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden heads to a United Nations climate conference Monday energized by a new legislative framework that, if enacted, would be the largest action ever taken by the United States to address climate change.

The $555 billion plan for climate spending is the centerpiece of a sweeping domestic policy package Biden and congressional Democrats presented Thursday, hours before the president traveled to Europe for another summit ahead of the climate meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

Biden called the plan “the most significant investment to deal with the climate crisis that ever happened, beyond any other advanced nation in the world.”

While far from certain to pass in a closely divided Congress, the new framework reassured nervous Democrats and environmental leaders that a president who has made climate action a key focus of his administration will not arrive in Glasgow empty-handed.

https://apnews.com/article/cop26-climate-summit-joe-biden-13931475c10187f6d0d1d0cddabcbb53

[DallasNE]

21. Wrong Conclusion

The lack of knowledge on what is in the bills is because the media is not informing the American people what is in the bills and to the extent they are they seem to be misinforming the American people because they seem to think there is nothing in them that will help them. But who can blame them when right here ABC News is slanting things.

[rickford66]

42. The media is great at telling us what's not in the bill.

[Tom Rinaldo]

23. The silver lining is that Democrats still have a lot of untapped upside potential with these bills

That plus the fact that the midterms are still over a year away. There is still plenty of time to sell the contents of these bills after they become law, and a lot of that selling will be done by the legislation itself once some provisions begin to take effect. We have our work cut out for us, but we will also have the tools needed to do that job.

[PortTack]

26. Such nonsense! They don't support President Biden, don't know what's in the bill??

Yet an overwhelming number of Americans including republicans support it!

https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/poll-nearly-70-of-americans-back-biden-infrastructure-bill/

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2021-07-22/majority-of-americans-favor-increasing-infrastructure-spending-poll-finds

Make that make sense!!
Damned media!!

[kimbutgar]

27. And now they will vote for republicans because of obstruction by two conservative Democrats

And be ok with democracy being destroyed?

I hate these polls that are meant to influence people’s minds.

What will repukes do for them? What at did repukes do for them during assolini reign?


I am 100% behind President Biden!

[jcmaine72]

30. I don't believe any of the current polls

The corporate MSM, as usual, is feverishly stirring the old shit pot. They especially love doing this before Election Day every year. Without sowing discord and engaging in shameless fearmongering, they'd actually have to do their jobs as journalists and report the truth to the American people, and that doesn't generate enough revenue for their liking.

[Orrex]

34. Democrats have no ability to deliver their message

Republicans for decades have used two- or three-syllable rallying cries to great success in firing up their base, while Democrats recite long paragraphs with footnotes and cross-references to enumerate the arcane details of their agenda.

And it doesn't help that in this era of split-second media, the news profiteers would rather repeat a brief soundbyte 1,000 times than air a lengthy and obscure articulation of policy.

Until Democrats figure out how to deliver their message in bite-sized chunks, they will continue to be stymied b y the public's media-driven impression of them.

[bluewater]

35. The problem is messaging the "Culture War" works better than messaging issues.

Look at the races in Virginia to see that in action.

[Mr.Bill]

43. In other news,

the News Media fails to explain anything about Biden's agenda except the price, including the fact that he also proposed the means to pay for it.

[AllaN01Bear]

44. the terrible 2 are in the way. sienna and manchuin.

[DallasNE]

45. A Few Administrations Ago

The President used to have a weekly 1/2 hour radio message each Saturday that the press would cover.

Why not revive that? Perhaps the public would be made aware of the high level details from the President's radio message. Maybe an audio link it to Facebook as well.

Astonishingly, the Republicans are currently winning the messaging war and their message is all that the 2020 election was stolen - nevermind that they never provide any data to back up the false claim.

[Raven123]

47. That's a good idea. Straight talk. No questions from the media

I think Joe would be good at this. I also think his desire to make the plan fiscally acceptable drives him to fast fire statistics quotes studies as well as opinions by experts (such leading economists, scientists etc). I’m afraid the public can’t or won’t process that info. He needs to personalize each issue of the agenda and bring hone how it will benefit each listeners individually.

[marieo1]

46. President Joe's the best

President Joe Biden doesn't have to (sell or explain anything) - He won the election....period, period, period and is doing just exactly what he promised to do and what we need him to do. He is doing such a fantastic job and doing everything he can to help us. It's those damned Reps and other negatives, including media, that want to question every single move he makes - just shut up and let President Joe do his job.

[ananda]

49. Better headline: RW Media prevent Biden from selling a great agenda!

!!!

[Bettie]

50. I put a lot of this squarely on the press

When TFG was in office, they did the best they could to spin his chaos into him being somehow, not as awful as he actually was.

The thing was, the chaos was good for ratings and for the people who own the media.

Now, there's no chaos, no drama, so they spin the lack of chaos and drama into failure. His appointees aren't stealing everything that isn't nailed down, they are generally speaking, working, without fanfare on fixing a lot of shit that was broken by the previous group.

So, the press just makes everything a crisis.

Manchin and Sinema and their quest to make everything suck aren't helping, but the coverage has been really, really slanted.

Where a moment of coherence made them say that TFG was great, they can't go a minute without saying that Biden sucks, as they try to create the chaos they crave.

[Evolve Dammit]

51. Would you like them to do a soft shoe and a free ShamWow for ya? JHC America.

Media let a fucking mob boss criminal slide and they can't appreciate what Biden/Harris are trying to do to right the ship that almost sunk. And they still want to sink. Every. Damn. Day.

[kacekwl]

53. Hard to sell if the vessel that delivers it

precedes the message with disingenuous reporting about what is in it. Not to mention the excessive Republican lies that they do report. Shame we don't have dozens of news and radio outlets car could count on to spread the message.

[dixiegrrrrl]

55. I do not trust MSM for polls, at all.

Been watching how they have not covered really important Dem/Biden info, and how much they do cover of negative news of same type.
I get it...they want to capture eyeballs thus money.

We cut cable almost...10 years ago, even Rachel comes thru on internet.
There are so many good "not MSM" news sources online.
Life without advertising has been calmer, much quieter.

[randr]

56. It is difficult to sell and agenda you can not agree on

[ancianita]

57. Corporate media at war with Democratic Party & leadership put out polls when media are losing.

This is the second truth Democrats need to put out there after gaining traction on the first truth -- that it has been media's refusal to convey the Democrats' messaging all along.

The third truth to put out there is that corporate media are at war with The People's party.

It's not that they are our version of "the enemy of the people," it's that they have owners who demand that they gaslight, deflect, minimize and ignore reportage that builds up consent of the governed and the power of well functioning government.

[The Jungle 1]

59. Our messaging.

We as a party need to address this issue. We have an ongoing problem with keeping people informed. I would like Biden to spend more time addressing the public and explaining our goals.

[ShazamIam]

60. Media like ABC worked really hard to sell TFGstax cut but barely mention the benefits to the people

included in the legislation now pending. Joe and the Democratic can shout the benefits all they want but the Media is not going to give them air time to do so.

[Deminpenn]

65. He's doing a number of speeches, but they are 2 or 3 or 4

in the afternoon, east coast time. No one's watching at those hours. Give a prime time speech that all the broadcast networks and cable news channels will cover. That would reach a lot more people.