What Exactly is the Public Saying About the Stimulus Bill?

Pollsters have been awfully busy the past few weeks tabulating numbers on the economic stimulus package that was passed by a very slim margin in the Senate. But while there's certainly no shortage of fresh public opinion data circulating out there, that doesn't necessarily mean there's much evidence of a public consensus on the pending legislation.

Most of the polls indicate that at least half of the American public does favor some kind of stimulus to the economy one way or another. In other words, they want government action. But as we so often see, this hinges on that ever-thorny issue of survey question wording (which Mark Blumenthal at Pollster.com lays out nicely), and after some careful inspection, the analysis of these pollsters actually varies quite a bit: Gallup’s numbers show public support for the stimulus package is unchanged, CBS News indicates it has fallen, and NBC News/Wall Street Journal concludes respondents support the stimulus plan “broadly.” Also note that there's a fair amount of "don't know" or "unsure" responses sprinkled throughout, as well as a good deal of flip-flopping from survey to survey, on the commonly asked question of favoring tax cuts versus increased government spending.

Policymakers and the media tend to look at survey results as a tactical tool, trying to find out whether or not the public would support a specific proposal. But that doesn't always work. Often it takes time for the American public to come to full grips with new policy issues like the global financial crisis and the stimulus package. And so far, based on the data we’ve seen, the public wants the government to do something, but they’re not quite there just yet on what, exactly, that should be.