POLICY SUPPORT RESEARCH
93% of Americans think inflation is a big or moderately big problem
On Inflation: It's the Monopoly Profits, Stupid (the way to show how regulation can be used to curb inflation and show that once again corporate power is to blame
Want to know why prices are so high? -Lindsay Owens
The White House Council of Economic Advisors estimates that ten specific kinds of junk fees amount to $90 billion per year in the United States, or more than $650 per household per year on average.
Nearly 80% of voters support state laws banning junk fees, according to a poll from the Economic Liberties Project.
25% of COVID era inflation driven by big oil collusion; support for windfall profits tax on big oil. According to survey data released (this links to an article; not sure where the survey data is) just days after the legislation was unveiled, a whopping 80% of U.S. voters--including 73% of Republicans--support the measure, which would hit large fossil fuel companies with a per-barrel tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and the average price per barrel between 2015 and 2019.
Investing in Caregiving: An Equitable Way to Reduce Inflation. Better paid leave and child care policies can help the economy while easing the burden on women and families. The Brookings Institution estimated that if Biden-Harris investments in child care had been in place, the increase in female labor force participation would have decreased inflation by up to 1 percentage point.
This memo assesses how agencies within the DOC and the DOT can use their powers to combat supply chain and trade issues through prioritizing citizen well-being over corporate profits.
According to a recent poll, three-quarters of Democrats and a majority of Republicans believe corporations are opportunistically raising prices under cover of inflation.
A recent Bloomberg poll found that 69 percent of voters in swing states support higher taxes on the wealthy, including a majority of Republicans. An article on raising taxes for the rich and corps.
Eighty percent of Americans support paid family leave. Overwhelming and bipartisan majorities support the creation of such a program, including more than three in four independents (76%) and seven in ten Republicans (70%).
First, we tested voters’ opinions of the PRO Act based on a brief summary of it. This description included a note that it has passed the House of Representatives and that the bill would expand the scope of individuals covered by labor standards, permit unions to encourage secondary strikes, require employees to pay union dues, prohibit mandatory meetings by employers to discourage unionization, make union-busting harder, and make it easier to vote in union elections via telephone or internet. We find that voters supported the PRO Act by a 16-percentage-point-margin. Likely voters that self identify as Democrats support the PRO Act by a 53-point-margin and likely voters that self-identify as Independents or Third party voters support it by a 17-point-margin. Likely voters that self-identify as Republicans, meanwhile, oppose the PRO Act by a 26-point-margin.
After testing the individual components of the PRO Act, we then re-asked likely voters if they support or oppose the bill. We find that once voters had been apprised of the contents of the PRO Act in detail, support for the PRO Act increased from a 16-point margin of support to a 29-point margin of support. Notably, Republican opposition to the PRO Act shrunk once voters learned about its contents. Before we asked voters their opinions on all of the components of the PRO Act, Republicans opposed it by a 26-point-margin. After being provided context of the provisions of the legislation, opposition to the legislation dropped to only a five-point margin.
Young voters overwhelmingly support policies pushed by Democrats and progressives. Although many Democrats weren’t popular in this survey, Democratic and progressive policies were, with overwhelming support for proposals to protect and strengthen the right to join a union to bargain collectively (81% in favor)
Recent CNBC polling showed higher interest in unionization among employees, with 59% of workers across the U.S. and across all sectors saying they support increased unionization in their own workplaces. That survey also showed that the partisan divide over unions was less than might be expected: 46% of Republicans were in favor of increased unionization at their work. The partisan gap is narrowing in the Gallup data too, a sign that worker conditions and experience are becoming more of a broad social issue than a political one in American thinking. General approval for unions by political party orientation is typically much higher among Democrats, and remains that way, now at 85%. But Wigert said for the GOP it is usually in the mid-40s, yet now that has bumped up to 56% support.
Workers without college degrees of all backgrounds are drawn to the general tenets of “inclusive populism” — whatever one calls it — and are highly receptive to messages that blame, say, oil companies for the high price of gasoline.
First, we tested increasing the corporate tax rate. The Corporate Tax rate used to be 35 percent, before Republicans dropped it to 21 percent during the Trump Administration in 2017. We asked likely voters if they supported or opposed restoring the Corporate Tax rate to its previous 35 percent while also reducing loopholes, tax breaks, and accounting tricks that multinational companies use to avoid taxation. Among all likely voters, restoring the previous Corporate Tax rate is supported by a 35-point-margin, including Democratic voters who support it by a 73-point-margin and Independent voters by a 30-point-margin. Republican voters oppose raising the Corporate Tax rate by a five-point-margin.
An Oil Price-Fixing Conspiracy Caused 27% of All Inflation Increases in 2021 The FTC just found evidence that American oil companies colluded with the Saudi government to hike gas prices, costing the average family $3,000 last year.
Child Tax Credit Polls higher when it’s means tested but is also then burdensome for the poorest folks to access
To kick off the series, Lindsay Owens, Executive Director of Groundwork Collaborative, and I wrote about the age of recoupment: how corporations have shifted from indiscriminately cutting costs to raising prices. Prices are becoming increasingly unmoored from the fundamentals, like the cost of labor or materials. In its place, a new corporate credo has emerged: The best price is the one consumers are willing to pay. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be rolling out the June special issue one story at a time. The issue covers everything you need to know about how corporations rip the public off, from surveillance pricing to junk fees to medical bills and grocery pricing. You can read the issue online as it comes out here.
We also asked voters whether they supported or opposed a wealth tax of two percent on individuals worth between $50 million and $1 billion dollars in wealth, and a three percent tax on net worth over $1 billion dollars — a proposal which would raise, roughly, $3 trillion dollars over a ten year window. We find that likely voters strongly support a wealth tax, by a 38-point-margin. Further, voters across the spectrum of partisanship are in favor of it: Democrats support a wealth tax by a 73-point margin, Independents by a 33-point margin, and Republicans by a four-point margin.
2020 research from Just Capital shows that across all demographics, political affiliations, incomes, genders, and generations, Americans find payment of a living wage the most important issue that business should address. How $15 minimum would compare to a living wage state by state.
Eight states and more than 40 cities have passed legislation to raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour. Just this past November in Florida, where Donald Trump won by more than 3 percent, voters passed a ballot measure to raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. Since 1998, there have been 24 state ballot measures to increase the minimum wage. All of them have passed.
A new Data for Progress poll found that 63 percent of voters support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including nearly half of Republicans (48:48). An even newer poll from May 2023 shows even greater support. Voters support a $12 minimum wage by a +72-point margin, a $17 minimum wage by a +54-point margin, and a $20 minimum wage by a +49-point margin (74 in favor vs 25% opposed). In this same poll, Republican voters support a $20/hr minimum by 60-38. This is after asking respondents how much they think folks need to make to get by. A slightly higher proportion of voters support raising the federal minimum to $17 an hour, with 76 percent support overall and 94 percent support from Democrats.
We find that, on average, voters believe that a typical American needs to earn $26 an hour to have a decent quality of life.
Seventy three percent of voters want the tipped minimum wage loophole replaced so that all workers are paid at least the standard minimum wage, including both a majority of Democrats and Republicans.
Which two of the following are the biggest economic challenges facing people your age?
35% The system is rigged for the rich and corporations
33 Rent is too expensive
33 Jobs don’t offer good pay and benefits
23 Healthcare costs are too high
19 Taxes are too high
17 The rising cost of groceries
15 College is too expensive
7 Lack of paid leave or affordable childcare
5 Discrimination and lack of opportunities for people of color
5 Lack of investment in infrastructure
4 We are too reliant on fossil fuels
Young voters overwhelmingly support policies pushed by Democrats and progressives to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations (78%)
Basic income is an essential but insufficient tool. In particular, its amount is always extremely modest. Depending on the proposal, it is generally between half and three quarters of the full-time minimum wage, so that, by construction it can only be a partial tool in the fight against inequality. For this reason, it is preferable to speak of a basic income than of a universal income (a notion that promises more than this minimalist reality). Piketty
The simplest solution is a redistribution of inheritance allowing the whole population to receive a minimal inheritance, which, to fix ideas, could be of the order of 120,000 Euros (ie 60% of the average wealth per adult). Paid to all at 25 years of age, it would be financed by a mix of progressive wealth and inheritance taxes yielding 5% of national income (a significant amount but one that could be considered in the long term). Those who currently inherit nothing would receive 120,000 euros, while those who inherit a million euros would receive 600,000 Euros after taxation and endowment. We are therefore still far from equality of opportunity, a principle often defended at a theoretical level, but which immediately puts the privileged classes on their guard whenever one envisages a beginning of concrete application. Some will want to put constraints on its use; why not, provided they apply to all inheritances.
Partners: Living Wage For US, Caring Across Generations
USPS Banking. Tens of millions of Americans are either unbanked or underbanked, shut out of the traditional banking system, and forced to turn to expensive, predatory services like check cashing stores and payday lenders. This is unacceptable in the wealthiest nation on Earth and postal banking is the solution we need. By allowing the USPS to offer basic financial services again, we can provide a low-cost, trustworthy option to every community in America. This is a proven model that has worked both here in the United States and countless other countries today. So what's stopping us? Politicians in the pockets of big banks and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump mega-donor with private sector ties, who is more interested in undermining the USPS than expanding its services for the public good. This is why Congress must introduce and pass postal banking legislation that will support not only the USPS but underserved communities across the country. Sign the petition to Congress: Immediately reintroduce and pass postal banking legislation. Partner: Take It Back
Massachusetts taxed the rich. Now they have an extra $1.8 billion to spend. This tax-payer approved hike can now pay for free public school meals, free community college, and public transit.
Equitable zoning: “Would you support or oppose a policy to ensure smaller, lower-cost homes like duplexes, townhouses, and garden apartments can be built in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods?” 50;25
Social housing: “Would you support or oppose a policy to build enough new nonprofit and publicly owned homes to ensure every American has a place to live?” 60:22
Rent relief: “Would you support or oppose a policy to spend $50 billion on rent subsidies to families paying over 30 percent of their income in rent?” 44:31
Rent stabilization: “Would you support or oppose a policy to cap rent increases to 5 percent a year?” 56:21
Data For Progress has a great overview of both their preferred housing policies and evaluations of the 2020 presidential candidates’ proposals. More here from VOX on the same topic and preferred anti-poverty measures. Criticism of tax credits for first time home buyers from Peoples Policy Project.
Almost 70 percent of Americans say that they want to see fundamental changes to our political and economic systems
ECONOMIC FREEDOM
69% of Americans think the climate is a big or moderately big problem
nearly two-thirds of young voters (63 percent) would support President Biden issuing an executive order to declare a National Climate Emergency that would allow the government to reallocate federal resources and establish regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This executive order enjoys a +75-point margin of support among Democrats and a +22-point margin of support among Independents, though it is strongly opposed by Republicans
We then asked young voters several questions about the Green New Deal. Without any additional information, young voters support the Green New Deal by a +35-point margin (55 percent support, 20 percent oppose; 77 D support).
However, after informing voters of the Green New Deal’s main policy goals, support jumps to a +52-point margin (73 percent support, 21 percent oppose) (89:7 for Dems). Notably, support jumps 20 points among Independents (43 percent to 63 percent) and 26 points among Republicans (from 24 percent to 50 percent).
To me, the above shows that the Green New Deal is probably not a good name at this point, unless there’s a major successful effort to explain it; however, the same could be said for most names—it’s just that the GND has had more time to be pilloried; but it has also had more time to generate support. Support for it increases nearly 20 points just by sharing 3 sentences about what it actually would do:
2022: Finally, we asked young voters whether they support or oppose several of the Green New Deal’s main policy pillars. We find that young voters overwhelmingly support all of them, especially decreasing utility costs (+74 points, 84:10), planting more trees and building more green spaces across America (+72 points, 83:11), making communities more resilient to extreme weather (+72 points, 83:11), supporting local food growers and sustainable farming (+71 points, 82:11), and building new sustainable, affordable housing (+70 points, 82:12), Modernizing homes, buildings and schools to reduce energy costs and usage (81:12), making public transit free and more accessible (75:18).
2024: Americans also overwhelmingly support proposals within the Green New Deal to make utilities cheaper (89%), reduce pollution (84%), work with small and family farmers to use sustainable farming and land-use practices (81%), and modernize infrastructure to be more energy-efficient (80%), among other policies.
Corvallis, Ore., home to Oregon State University, where a recently implemented fare-less public transportation system resulted in a two-thirds increase in ridership over time
This includes the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps (59 percent support), investments in clean energy (71 percent), and environmental justice initiatives that ensure frontline communities most impacted by the crisis are centered (67 percent). And our members continue to push to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels and to renewable energy resources, with the introduction of the Green New Deal (with a 31-point margin of support) and the American Renewable Energy Act (supported by nearly two-thirds of likely voters).
We find that by a 72-percentage-point margin, likely voters support establishing a goal that federal government-supported programs and institutions spend at least a quarter of their ingredients budget on food produced by local farms. This includes a majority of self-identified Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, who support this initiative by margins of 80-points, 77-points, and 60-points, respectively.
We then asked likely voters if they would support or oppose phasing in a requirement that all federal food suppliers disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. By a 29-point margin, a majority of likely voters nationally support this proposal. This includes more than three-quarters of Democrats (76 percent support), more than half of Independents (56 percent support), and forty percent of Republicans. While a slight plurality of Republicans oppose this proposal (49 percent), it is notable that a strong majority of Republicans do back other requirements to increase the transparency of federal food providers’ supply chains.
Young voters overwhelmingly support policies pushed by Democrats and progressives. Although many Democrats weren’t popular in this survey, Democratic and progressive policies were, with overwhelming support for proposals to reduce carbon emissions and address the impact of climate change
U.S. residents with fewer financial resources are disproportionately likely to live in energy inefficient homes (e.g., with poor insulation, single-paned windows, etc.), which means that these residents pay higher energy bills while receiving less protection from hot and cold temperatures. Our research has found that about eight in ten Americans (79%) support providing federal funding to make residential buildings in low-income communities more energy efficient.
About two in three Americans (68%) support increasing funding to low-income communities and communities of color who are disproportionately harmed by air and water pollution.
Most Americans also support climate-friendly policies that have job-creation benefits. About eight in ten Americans support re-establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps, which would employ workers to protect natural ecosystems, plant trees in rural and urban areas, and restore the soil on farmlands (83%), creating a jobs program to hire unemployed oil and gas workers to safely close down abandoned oil and gas wells (81%), and creating a jobs program that would hire unemployed coal workers to safely close down old coal mines and restore the natural landscape (81%).
This article notes that ebikes and e cargo bikes aren't really on the radar of climate advocates and therefore have a harder time attracting attention among policy makers
The poll found that the majority of (Massachussettes) residents (68%) support incentives for e-bikes — slightly less than the share of support for EV rebates and transit funding for electric buses and electric school buses.
The E-BIKE Act has garnered significant interest and support, with 70% of major city residents expressing their backing for the e-bike tax credit. Almost half of major city residents (49%) indicated they were extremely likely to switch to an e-bike if the E-BIKE Act passes. Why would cities and states offer subsidies for e-bikes? As it turns out, the subsidies can pay for themselves many times over. E-bikes don’t just benefit those that use them. They actually benefit everyone. When even a small fraction of drivers switch to bicycles or e-bikes, the impacts on traffic are profound. One study found that a 10% shift from cars to bikes resulted in a 40% reduction in traffic. Other studies have shown that when e-bikes and e-scooters aren’t available, commute times for everyone in cities grow due to increased traffic.
A recent study concluded that the disease burden from plastic exposure includes preterm birth, obesity, heart disease and cancer, and the health-care cost was $249 billion in 2018 alone. The human body has become the trash can of our plastics-addicted culture.” -from wapo article about recycling being bogus
A majority of people in every state except texas support all-EV sales by 2030
Framing greatly influences support levels for climate policy.
We also asked likely voters if they would support or oppose federal food service programs phasing out purchasing food from Confined Animal Feeding Operations (“CAFOs”), a.k.a. factory farms. We find that by a 37-point margin, likely voters support such a phase-out. This includes a majority of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, who support a transition away from CAFOs by margins of 57-points, 32-points, and 17-points, respectively.
A 2018 Ketchum’s Causes Americans Care About poll found 41% of respondents listed their top cause as animal welfare; higher than children’s education (38%), hunger (33%), or disease research (29%). And in a 2015 Gallup poll, 94% of those surveyed agreed animals should have some form of protection, including 32% who felt animals should have the same rights as humans (but presumably not the right to vote).
CLIMATE FREEDOM
About 63 percent of Americans support abortion’s being legal in all or most cases, according to Pew Research polling from July 2022. But that view is even more widely held among people ages 18 to 29 – 70 percent of people in that age group support legal abortion. In Jul 22 NYT poll, 84% of 18-29 oppose decision. 88% think it should always or mostly always be legal.
Other recent polling puts young people’s support for abortion even higher – a CBS/YouGov survey conducted in June 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, found that 78 percent of young people favor legal abortion.
Young people are also the most likely age group to disapprove of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. Sixty-nine percent of young people disapprove of the ruling, compared with 60 percent of adults ages 30 to 49 and half of Americans older than 49.
Nearly half of young women said that they supported or were active participants in the reproductive rights movement, according to my 2018 survey of people ages 18 to 24. Women of color were more likely to be involved in the reproductive rights movement than young white women, our survey found.
And 41 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds surveyed in another poll say the Dobbs decision makes them more likely to vote in the midterms.
Seventy-six percent of young voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 24% said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Black voters were most likely to say abortion should be legal while white voters were least likely. Eighty-three percent agreed with the statement that reproductive health care decisions should be made between women and their doctors, not politicians, and 66% agreed women will never have equal rights until they have the freedom to decide when to give birth.
A survey of Latino voters in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas released by the group just before the Supreme Court handed down its rulings found 64 percent of Latinos are “more motivated to vote” in the upcoming November midterm elections as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe, with 52 percent saying they are “much more motivated.” The poll found 68 percent of Latinos believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with just 10 percent saying they think abortion should be banned. Sixty five percent of respondents said they would support a law to protect abortion access nationally.
the invaluable Judd Legum documents how the big banks (Chase, B of A, etc) that fund Big Oil also provide financial support for the Republican Attorneys General Association, whose members bought the Supreme Court challenges on climate, abortion, and guns.
The hypocrisy of abortion as a corporate perk
79 percent of voters are concerned about states restricting access to birth control and other forms of contraception
78 percent of voters are concerned about doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals facing lawsuits or criminal charges from providing necessary reproductive healthcare
89 percent of voters are concerned about victims of rape or incest being forced to give birth to their abusers' children
We first asked voters for their support for allowing birth control pills to be sold over the counter without a prescription in pharmacies, grocery stores, or online. Voters enthusiastically support over-the-counter access to birth control pills by a +48-point margin (71 percent support, 23 percent oppose). Notably, we find support among voters across parties: Democrats by a +60-point margin, Independents by a +44-point margin, and Republicans by a +32-point margin.
By a +58-point margin, a majority of voters would be more likely to vote for a candidate for Congress who supports expanding access to birth control (70 percent more likely, 12 percent less likely). This sentiment extends across parties, with a +77-point margin among Democrats, a +57-point margin among Independents, and a +34-point margin among Republicans.
Despite the need for an increase in ERA education (a new poll by Data for Progress finds 70 percent of voters mistakenly believe women and men are guaranteed equal rights in the Constitution), 85 percent of voters say that they would support Congress passing the Equal Rights Amendment, including 93 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of Independents, and 79 percent of Republicans.
Seventy-seven percent of voters agree that doctors took an oath to protect patients and the government should not prevent them from providing care, especially in the treatment of victims of sexual crimes. This includes 86 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of Independents, and 72 percent of Republicans.
An AP-NORC poll, conducted the week of the Supreme Court ruling, managed to capture the immediate effects of the decision: 43% of the interviews were conducted prior to the ruling, and the remainder afterward. Among those polled pre-decision, 13% named abortion or women's rights issues as among the top five problems they wanted to see the government work on -- already an elevated number compared with much of the past decade. Among those surveyed after the Court's ruling, the number naming abortion or women's rights climbed to 30%. The overturning of Roe also instantly widened the partisan intensity gap on the issue, the AP-NORC poll found. Prior to the decision, Democrats were 9 percentage points likelier than Republicans to list abortion or women's rights as a top issue (18% vs. 9%). In the days following, that gap rose to 28 points (42% vs. 14%).
REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
The Spring 2022 Harvard Youth Poll finds that 59% of young Black Americans, 43% of young Asian Americans, and 37% of young Hispanic Americans feel “under attack” “a lot” in America. Nearly half of LGBTQ youth feel under attack “a lot.”
By two-to-one margins, young Americans are supportive of candidates that support teaching K-12 students that racism – intentional or not – is a fixture of American laws and institutions.
Regardless of question-wording, young white voters supported teaching K-12 students about the history of race in America. The divides among parties were prominent: 70% of Democrats under 30 were supportive of candidates who support teaching that racism is a fixture of American laws and institutions, compared to 23% of Republicans and a plurality of independents (37%). Support for candidates in favor of teaching “critical race theory” without a further definition: Democrats 63%, Republicans 22%, independents 38%.
69% of Americans think racism is a big or moderately big problem
We first tested Ohio voters’ preferred approach to drug use and addiction — public health policy or criminal justice policy. Overwhelmingly, and with bipartisan agreement, Ohio voters believe drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal justice one. On net, likely Ohio voters prefer the public health approach over the criminal justice one by a margin of +66 points. Democrats, Independents, and Republicans also prefer public health approaches, with net margins of +74, +69, and +58 points, respectively.
All likely Ohio voters back making bail proportionate to income, with a net margin of +30 points. Large majorities of Democrats and Independents support the policy, with respective net margins of +56 and +32 points. A plurality of Republicans also support the reform.
Among all likely voters in New York, 76 percent want to expand the number of vocational and career training opportunities for those who are in prison, a net margin of +58 points. The support extends across parties, with Democrats (84 percent), Independents (79 percent), and Republicans (59 percent) all wanting to expand vocational and training opportunities. Moreover, 89 percent of Black New Yorkers support the proposal.
A majority of New York voters support raising the minimum wage in state prisons to $3 an hour, for a net favorability of +21 points. Overall, 56 percent of voters and 71 percent of Democrats support the proposal, with Black (76 percent) and Latina/o (68 percent) New Yorkers also supporting it by wide margins. Also, 59 percent of New Yorkers support raising the minimum wage and ending forced labor in state prisons, even after hearing opposing arguments (a net margin of +27 points). This includes 75 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of Black New Yorkers, and 68 percent of Latina/o New Yorkers.
Roughly two in three New York voters (66 percent) support legislation to establish a board to oversee prison labor in New York state prisons, for a net margin of +41 points. The board would ensure people in prisons have safe working conditions, enforce fair wages for labor, and end the practice of forced prison labor. Among Democrats in New York, 80 percent support establishing a prison labor board, along with 81 percent of Black New Yorkers and 68 percent of Latina/o New Yorkers.
We first asked likely voters about how they perceive racial inequality in society and what role the state should play in resolving it. By a +40-point margin, we found that likely voters in Fairfax agree that racial inequality is still a major problem today and that it’s one the state should be addressing directly. This result is supported by an overwhelming majority of Democrats, 94 percent of whom agree with the sentiment, along with a strong majority (61 percent) of Independents.
When asked about specific policy reforms, we found that voters are by-and-large onboard with a robust platform of progressive changes. In Fairfax County we find that, overall, likely voters support implementing alternative sentences to prison time for individuals convicted of non-violent felonies and misdemeanors by a +75-point margin. Additionally, we find that likely voters support eliminating the use of mandatory minimums by a +38-point margin, and that only 40 percent of voters supported a continued use of cash bail.
Presently, in Virginia, children 11 years or older can be sent to correctional facilities, marring their records from a young age and isolating them from the families, friends, and mentors that can help them grow from their mistakes and re-enter society. When asked whether they support or oppose raising the age at which children can be sent to such facilities, likely Virginia voters from across the political spectrum support the policy by a +23-point margin. Furthermore, while it received its highest support from Democrats, who support raising the age by a +33-point margin (62 percent support vs. 29 percent oppose), it also received majority support from both Independents and Republicans, who supported it by +11-point and +19-point margins, respectively.
When asked whether they supported directing these youths into restorative justice programs or other alternatives, an impressive 84 percent of likely voters in the state said that they either ‘Strongly’ or ‘Somewhat’ supported the measure. Even more significantly, this policy garnered overwhelming bipartisan support from voters, with 84 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 83 percent of Republicans supporting the measure.
voters in Virginia agree: we find that a majority of likely voters support increasing funding for violence prevention programs. across all likely voters, 75 percent of respondents supported increasing funding specifically for violence prevention and other crime diversion programs. We also find that these results are bolstered by impressively consistent support across party lines, with 81 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Independents, and 70 percent of Republicans supporting their funding.
across party lines, an impressive 77 percent of likely voters support redirecting the funds previously reserved for administering the death penalty towards violence prevention efforts throughout Virginia. Democrats offer the highest support with 88 percent in support of the measure, followed by Independents, and Republicans, who support it by +55-point and +43-point margins, respectively.
When we drill down further and list specific types of programs, support only grows among respondents. Across all likely voters, 77 percent support funding a wide variety of violence prevention programs including mentorship and re-entry programs, trauma-informed care, and substance abuse treatment. Once again, we observe significant bipartisan support for this funding with Democrats showing the highest support at 82 percent, followed by Independents with 77 percent support, and finally Republicans, 70 percent of whom support funding these programs.
When presented with policy alternatives, such as the 251 prison diversion program for first time drug offenses, 73 percent of all likely voters supported creating similar programs for other crimes unrelated to drug possession. We once again observe strong support across party lines with 85 percent support from Democrats, 73 percent from Independents, and Republicans supporting these programs by a +30-point margin.
the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill that would take significant steps to hold officers accountable for abuse, and create national standards for police conduct. This bill is favored by 74 percent of voters across the political spectrum — including 88 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of independents.
the House of Representatives advanced H.R. 40, legislation that would create a commission to study reparations for the descendants of slavery. Democrats overwhelmingly favor the congressional commission, with 86% in support, and only 5% opposed. Independents also support the commission, 46% to 37%. Overall, 50% of respondents support such a commission (39% white, 84% Black, and 67% Hispanic). This is a significant increase from one year ago in national support for a congressional commission. An April 2019 Huffington Post/YouGov poll found just 31% of Americans in favor of a government commission—with 55% of Democrats and 22% of Independents.
On a range of issues, Democratic voters believe that: • Racial and ethnic discrimination is a problem in the United States: 98% say that it is a problem, and 85% say it is a “major” problem. • The legacy of slavery affects the position of Black people in American society today: 69% believe that slavery affects Black people today “a great deal” and another 22% say “a fair amount.” • The impact of slavery and ongoing discrimination is a major factor in lower levels of wealth for Blacks in the United States today: 86% of Democrats say slavery and discrimination is a “major factor” and 7% say it is a “minor factor.”
A 59-point margin of likely voters think that inmates should be allowed to visit weekly with their friends and family. Likely voters also believe that solitary should never be used on pregnant women (51-point margin) or on people who live with a disability or mental illness (49-point margin). Furthermore, likely voters agree by a 48-point margin that no one should be placed in solitary for more than 15 consecutive days. Also by a 48-point margin, likely voters concur that people should not be physically restrained inside of their cells, which is a disturbingly common practice in some facilities. Respondents initially appeared split over whether to support banning solitary confinement altogether. But when presented with a specific proposal to end extreme isolation, a clear majority expressed support. By a 39-point margin, likely voters want to prohibit the practice of isolating people for more than 16 hours a day — which effectively means ending solitary confinement. [The support or lack thereof for ending solitary confinement depends a lot on education because most voters don’t understand it well, according to this polling.]
Alternatives to solitary confinement are very popular. We find that 80 percent of likely voters support a policy of providing mental health treatment instead of placing people in solitary. Furthermore, strong majorities of likely voters think correctional facilities should implement conflict de-escalation strategies and positive incentives for good behavior, instead of trying to control people through isolation.
From June 22 to 24, Data for Progress conducted a nationally-representative survey of 1,205 likely voters to gauge opinions on Life Without Parole. We polled likely voters about whether they would support or oppose allowing all people the opportunity to be considered for parole release. We found voters to be divided on this question. Forty-five percent of voters support giving everyone the opportunity to apply for parole, while 46 percent want to leave LWOP unchanged. Republicans, Independents, and voters aged 45 and older support the continued use of LWOP at 57, 47, and 52 percent respectively. However, there are also large blocks of voters who want to see an end to LWOP. Data for Progress found that Democratic voters oppose the use of LWOP by a 23-percentage-point margin (57 percent). LWOP is also opposed by a 21-point margin (55 percent) of voters under age 45.
Not only is LWOP ineffective as a public safety measure, but the terrible burden of LWOP sentences falls mostly on Black people as part of America’s systematically racist prison system. Black people make up about 12 percent of the U.S. population but 33 percent of the total incarcerated population and a staggering 56 percent of people sentenced to LWOP.
Approval for the death penalty, which peaked at 80 percent in 1994, declined to a record low of 55 percent in 2020. Support for capital punishment was highest among adults aged 50-64 (69%), falling to 60% among those over 65, 58% among those aged 30–49, and 51% among those aged 18–29. Results of Pew’s April 5–11, 2021 on-line survey of U.S. adults, released on June 2, indicated that 60% [Pew thinks people polled online are more willing to say what they believe about death penalty than people talking to a pollster] of respondents said they favored the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, down from the 65% level of support reported by on-line respondents in August 2020 and September 2019.
Finally, we asked likely voters if they would support or oppose establishing a goal that federal government-supported programs and institutions buy a portion of their ingredients from historically disadvantaged farmers. We find that by a 51-point margin, a majority of likely voters support these guidelines. Majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans all back this proposal, by margins of 75-points, 47-points, and 28-points, respectively.
Two-thirds of American voters now support decriminalizing all drugs (jun ‘21 probably has some bias based on who did it), while 83 percent believe that the "war on drugs" has failed, according to a new poll. A 66 percent majority were in favor of "eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession and reinvesting drug enforcement resources into treatment and addiction services," according to the poll released Wednesday by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Support for decriminalization differed depending on political affiliation. While 85 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of Independents favored decriminalization, only 40 percent of Republicans agreed.
An 82 percent majority agreed that President Joe Biden and Congress should "reform the country's drug laws." When queried on specific drug policy reforms, 64 percent were in favor of ending mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes, while another 61 percent supported reducing or commuting the sentences of people currently behind bars for drug crimes.
In June 2021, U.S. House Reps Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) and Cori Bush (D-MO), in collaboration with the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), introduced the Drug Policy Reform Act (DPRA) – a bill seeking to end criminal penalties for drugs possession at the federal level. At the time, a poll by Data for Progress and The Appeal, which analyze public opinion around drug prohibition and decriminalization, revealed that seven in ten Americans say they believe federal drug policies are not working and need to be reformed.
Legalizing cannabis for adults is the second most popular plank among youth polled for teen vogue May 22 (84:12)
People's Response Act has a lot of interesting features and many sponsoring orgs
After the George Floyd protests, Karakatsanis, who founded the carceral reform nonprofit Civil Rights Corps, began critiquing public assumptions and media coverage about crime. Many of his threads, he said, are in response to requests from educators, advocates, and even journalists themselves. He publishes, he said, “in service of a shared goal—to counter a lot of the propaganda around crime.” His tweets gave rise to his Substack newsletter; his 2019 book, Usual Cruelty; and Copaganda, which will be published next year.
60% of voters nationally believe mass incarceration leads to unsafe communities. (source)
59 percent of voters in six congressional districts prefer to address root causes over punitive measures. “We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness, unemployment, and poverty. Investing in services that will treat the root causes of these problems, like affordable housing and job training, is a more effective solution than relying on punishment and incarceration.” Source: Impact Research March 2024 survey of six battleground Congressional districts in AZ, CA, NJ, and OH.
Our survey also finds that over 8-in-10 voters (86%) believe that our criminal legal system should focus on rehabilitating people to become productive, law-abiding citizens, including 50% of voters who strongly agree with this statement. A similar number of voters (88%) agree with the statement that “our criminal legal system should focus on making sure people are less likely to commit another crime.” This includes 54% of voters who strongly agree.
JUSTICE FREEDOM
New Fox poll on SCOTUS reform:
71% support mandatory retirement age
66% support 18-year term limits
46% support adding more justices
Despite the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a majority of Americans (54%) do not want the Court expanded to include more justices. NPR/PBS/Marist Jun 22. The image of the Supreme Court has further diminished. 39% of Americans say they have either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the Supreme Court, comparable to an already dismal 40% in May. Americans’ perceptions of the Supreme Court have plummeted since 2019 when 60% of Americans had confidence in SCOTUS.
Mike Podhorzer shared a series of graphs showing how the Federalist Society has turned the Supreme Court into an undemocratic legislative body by spending the last two decades working with Republicans to ram through right-wing Justices committed to advancing their regressive agenda. He explained that victory for Biden in this election could be the last chance to stop the completion of the Federalist Society coup.
Reeling from the Supreme Court conservative supermajority’s gutting of many long-cherished rights, thousands of listeners have turned to 5–4, a podcast founded in 2020 by three lawyers: Rhiannon Hamam, Michael Liroff, and Peter Shamshiri. The show is an irreverent and sometimes vulgar exploration into, as its tagline puts it, “how much the Supreme Court sucks.” Episodes cover individual SCOTUS decisions, from the most infamous to the lesser-known-but-equally consequential, as well as explore the seamy underbelly of American legal education and culture.
A majority of Democrats — 53 percent — support abolishing the Supreme Court in favor of a “democratically elected” court, according to a new poll.
To learn more about the nuts and bolts of how staggered 18-year terms could work, I recommend reading a working group report by the Our Common Purpose Commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which I co-chair. There’s a strong case to be made that we don’t need a constitutional amendment to enact this plan.
However, 53 percent of all likely voters oppose abolishing the high court, the poll by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports found.
While 64 percent of Democrats also supported expanding the Supreme Court from nine seats to 13 seats, 51 percent of all likely voters opposed such an expansion.
147 Republican members of Congress defied the will of American voters by voting against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. These 147 members — “election overturners” — have since raised over $30 million in corporate campaign donations, with many common household names footing the bill.
Data for Progress polling conducted from June 23-27, 2022 shows that once voters learn of corporations’ campaign contributions to election overturners, their favorability ratings drop significantly. A majority of voters oppose corporations donating to the campaigns of election overturners and say they are less likely to buy from them knowing this information: Among likely voters, without any prior context, United Parcel Service (UPS) receives a net favorability rating of +67 points, Cigna receives a net favorability rating of +22 points, Ford receives a net favorability rating of +57 points, AT&T receives a net favorability rating of +37 points, Home Depot receives a net favorability rating of +70 points, Toyota receives a net favorability rating of +67 points, American Airlines receives a net favorability rating of +39 points, Chevron receives a net favorability rating of +31 points, and Anheuser-Busch (which owns Budweiser, Stella Artois, and Michelob Ultra, among other brands) receives a net favorability rating of +36 points.
Among the nine corporations tested, net favorability ratings drop, on average, by 40 percent once voters are informed of their campaign contributions to members of Congress who voted against certifying the presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2021.
the For the People Act, a landmark voting rights bill. We asked voters if they supported or opposed the bill, providing them with both the arguments of supporters of the bill (it would limit the influence of big money in politics by empowering small donors, make voting easier and more secure, and end gerrymandering) and opponents of the bill (it would be an overreach by the federal government and states should control their own elections). We find that after being provided with messages of supporters and opponents of the legislation, voters strongly supported the For the People Act by a 32-point-margin, with Democrats supporting it by a 73-point-margin, Independents supporting it by a 30-point-margin, and Republicans opposing it by a 13-point-margin. Support for the For the People Act was particularly high among voters of color: Black voters supported it by a 56-point-margin, and Latino voters supported the legislation by a 46-pointmargin.
we asked voters a series of questions on whether they supported or opposed major provisions of the For the People Act. Out of 13 such provisions, we find that a majority of voters support 11 of these major provisions. A plurality of likely voters support the remaining two provisions. The most popular of the For the People Act’s provisions were mandating that voting machines produce a paper record so that officials may verify electronic voter tallies (which voters supported by a 60-point-margin), requiring all super PACs and “dark money” groups to make their donors public (supported by a 55-point-margin), and making Election Day a federal holiday (supported by a 45-point-margin.)
After testing the individual components of the For the People Act, we then reasked likely voters whether they support or oppose the legislation. We find that likely voter support for the For the People Act climbed considerably once voters learned about its contents. Overall, support from the initial to the reask increased by seven-points (to 65:26, 87:8 D, 63:25 I) and opposition from Republicans fell from 13-points to just five-points, on net.
In February 2021, Data for Progress tested support for making Washington D.C. a state following a year that saw multiple historic events — including the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol by a white supremacist mob and the inability for the District’s Mayor to deploy the National Guard — bring renewed visibility to conversations around D.C. statehood. The poll, commissioned by Democracy for All 2021 Action, shows record-high support for D.C. statehood, with 54% of voters saying they agree with making D.C. a state, the highest level of support documented to date.
The “taxation without representation” argument is most likely to generate support for D.C. statehood from voters across the country, political spectrum, and backgrounds. Overall, 58% of voters agree D.C. should be made a state when presented with the injustice of taxation without representation, including large majorities of voters in urban (66%), suburban (57%), and rural (55%) America. This argument also resonates with majorities of Democrats (73%) and Independents (55%), and yields the highest share of support (42%) among Republicans.
Democrats recognize that statehood for D.C. is a racial justice issue. 78% of Democrats support DC statehood when framed within the context of racial justice. Meanwhile, Republican opposition to statehood is most fierce when racial justice is brought up.
Young voters overwhelmingly support policies pushed by Democrats and progressives. Although many Democrats weren’t popular in this survey, Democratic and progressive policies were, with overwhelming support for proposals to…The top issue backed by respondents, with 91% support, was combating political corruption by ending partisan gerrymandering and removing dark money from campaigns.
Do you support or oppose eliminating the filibuster -- a Senate tradition that allows a minority of Senators to prevent a vote on a bill if 60 of the 100 Senators?
31% Strongly support eliminating the filibuster
19 Somewhat support eliminating the filibuster
10 Somewhat oppose eliminating the filibuster
14 Strongly oppose eliminating the filibuster
26 Not sure
A majority of Democrats (80%), Independents (64%), and Republicans (54%) support voting by mail.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found about half of Americans support expanding access to early and mail voting, while about 3 in 10 opposed the ideas and the rest had no opinion. Automatic voter registration was the most popular Democratic proposal in the survey, endorsed by 60% of Americans.
Because politics is now mostly focused on the culture war, you might not know that the Supreme Court doesn’t primarily arbitrate social issues — it mostly deals with business cases like this one recently spotlighted by The Lever. A recent Constitutional Accountability Center study suggests that’s by design: “In deciding which cases to hear last term, the Court overwhelmingly chose opportunities to help big business by reconsidering lower-court wins for individuals or the government. As usual, the Court rarely agreed to hear cases that would put corporate victories in jeopardy. And when resolving the cases it accepted for review, the Court ultimately ruled for corporate interests nearly three-fourths of the time.”
Notes from a Harvard symposium on the future of the Electoral College
Voters in seven states voted on a record 10 ranked-choice voting (RCV) initiatives in 2022, including a proposal to use RCV for most elections in the state of Nevada. In that state and seven other jurisdictions, the RCV initiatives passed. When these results are added to RCV initiatives over the last five years, voters have now approved RCV in 25 out of 30 elections, an astonishing 83% win rate. These results are consistent with recent polling. A University of Maryland poll earlier this year found that 62% of Americans support the adoption of RCV in federal elections. A recent poll by the University of Houston found that a plurality of Texans now favors RCV. Polling generally shows that RCV enjoys its highest level of support among voters who are younger, more affluent, and better educated. Independents and Democrats support RCV by slightly higher margins than Republicans. But generally, RCV has at least plurality support across all demographics and partisan voting histories.
Voting eligibility and a person’s involvement in the criminal legal system have a historical but unnatural association in the United States. Some state laws dating back over 100 years, and motivated by racist ideology, permanently ban people convicted of a felony from voting, and almost all states have long prevented voting by people in prison. Over the last 50 years the country’s investment in mass incarceration not only staggeringly increased the prison population and the community of people with a criminal record but increased the number of people banned from voting due to a felony conviction.1 As a result, over 4.6 million Americans with a felony conviction were disenfranchised as of 2022,2 disproportionately impacting Black and Latinx residents. This is due in part to over 50 years of U.S. mass incarceration, wherein the U.S. incarcerated population increased from about 360,000 people in the early 1970s to nearly 2 million in 2022.4
The Sentencing Project’s new report, “Out of Step: U.S. Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective,” reveals that the United States is out of step with the rest of the world in disenfranchising large numbers of citizens based on criminal convictions. The report examines the laws of 136 countries around the world, and finds that the majority never or rarely deny a person’s right to vote because of a criminal conviction. In the other 63 countries, where some laws deny the right to vote, the U.S. sits at the top of the restrictive end of the spectrum, disenfranchising a wider swath of people overall.
A majority of voters (56%) supports a law to guarantee the eligibility to vote for all citizens 18 and older, including citizens completing their sentence, both inside and outside of prison, compared to just 35% who say they would oppose.
DEMOCRACY FREEDOM
Nearly 80 percent of Latino voters said they believed common sense gun laws can pass while keeping the Second Amendment intact for responsible gun owners. Meanwhile, 82 percent said they’re in favor of background checks on all gun purchases while 9 percent said they somewhat support the measure, including 80 percent of Republicans. At least 78 percent said they also support red flag laws.
the invaluable Judd Legum documents how the big banks (Chase, B of A, etc) that fund Big Oil also provide financial support for the Republican Attorneys General Association, whose members brought the Supreme Court challenges on climate, abortion, and guns.
Despite the government’s lack of action, a poll by Data for Progress finds 61 percent of voters support a new assault weapons ban, including 79 percent of Democrats, 53 percent of Independents, and 45 percent of Republicans.
Both Cruz and Cornyn benefit from NRA spending. According to a report from the Houston Chronicle, Cruz has received $176,284 and Cornyn $583,816 from the NRA. Abbott has received $16,750 from the organization.
Voters in the United States support gun control laws similar to those in Australia. Data for Progress finds voters support establishing a gun licensing program. Under the proposal from Democratic members of Congress, a person would have to take a firearms safety course and submit a permit application to a police department so it could initiate a background check before purchasing a gun.
Sixty-nine percent of voters support the gun licensing program, including 85 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of Independents, and 53 percent of Republicans.
PEACE AND SAFETY FREEDOM
Nearly 80 percent of Latino voters said they believed common sense gun laws can pass while keeping the Second Amendment intact for responsible gun owners. Meanwhile, 82 percent said they’re in favor of background checks on all gun purchases while 9 percent said they somewhat support the measure, including 80 percent of Republicans. At least 78 percent said they also support red flag laws.
the invaluable Judd Legum documents how the big banks (Chase, B of A, etc) that fund Big Oil also provide financial support for the Republican Attorneys General Association, whose members brought the Supreme Court challenges on climate, abortion, and guns.
Despite the government’s lack of action, a poll by Data for Progress finds 61 percent of voters support a new assault weapons ban, including 79 percent of Democrats, 53 percent of Independents, and 45 percent of Republicans.
Both Cruz and Cornyn benefit from NRA spending. According to a report from the Houston Chronicle, Cruz has received $176,284 and Cornyn $583,816 from the NRA. Abbott has received $16,750 from the organization.
Voters in the United States support gun control laws similar to those in Australia. Data for Progress finds voters support establishing a gun licensing program. Under the proposal from Democratic members of Congress, a person would have to take a firearms safety course and submit a permit application to a police department so it could initiate a background check before purchasing a gun.
Sixty-nine percent of voters support the gun licensing program, including 85 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of Independents, and 53 percent of Republicans.
87% of Americans think the cost of health care is a big or moderately big problem
Sixty-nine percent of registered voters in the April 19-20, 2020 survey support providing medicare to every American, just down 1 percentage point from a Oct. 19-20, 2018 poll, and within the poll’s margin of error. Popularity for Medicare for All grew slightly among Democratic voters, with a 2 percentage point increase from 2018. Support among independent voters was steady at 68 percent. However, support among Republican voters declined 6 percentage points over the course of two years, from 52 percent support in 2018 to 46 percent in 2020.
A January 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 77% of Democrats “Favor having a national health plan, sometimes called Medicare for All, in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan.” A December 2019 NBC/WSJ poll found that 68% of Democrats supported “Adopting Medicare for All, a single-payer health care system in which private health insurance would be eliminated and all Americans would get their health coverage from one government plan,”—which was up from 63% in September 2019.
A public citizen article about Medicare for All polling biases
New polling from Data for Progress finds that 90 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 69 percent of Republicans agree the federal government should negotiate prices with prescription drug companies to lower the cost of essential medications.
Sixty-eight percent of voters — including Republicans by a +18-point margin, Independents by a +39-point margin, and Democrats by a +72-point margin — believe that we should establish publicly built and owned drug manufacturing facilities so the government can make critical medicines available at a lower cost.
President Biden is also considering expanding Medicare to cover Americans who have medical problems after being exposed to a public health hazard, such as lead water pipes. This Medicare expansion is supported by 89 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 62 percent of Republicans.
Biden may further expand Medicare to cover medically necessary dental care for people with certain conditions like diabetes, cancer, and Parkinson's disease. This expanded Medicare coverage is supported by 83 percent of voters, including Republicans by a +50-point margin, Independents by a +73-point margin, and Democrats by a +86-point margin.
While investments in physical infrastructure are very popular with voters, we find that likely voters see policies contained in the Build Back Better Plan, including expanding Medicare benefits, investing in long-term care, and raising taxes on the wealthy, as the most important elements of the Biden agenda. ● Specifically, 76% of voters see a provision of the Build Back Better plan as their top priority within Biden’s agenda. ● Among Independent / Third Party voters, 74% identify a provision of the Build Back Better Plan as the most important part of the Biden agenda. ● Investing in caregiving, lowering health care costs, and expanding the use of clean energy paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations is an agenda that is both popular and seen as a priority for likely voters.
Young voters overwhelmingly support policies pushed by Democrats and progressives. Although many Democrats weren’t popular in this survey, Democratic and progressive policies were, with overwhelming support for proposals to…creating a Medicare for All plan was popular too, earning 73% support among young voters.
Eighty eight percent of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Preventable disease costs $1.36 trillion/year, accounting for at least 27% of total healthcare spending ($5 trillion in 2024)—more than the entire Pentagon budget.
Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you’ve likely seen the statistics: Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent. The decline in mental health is just one of many signs that something went awry. Loneliness and friendlessness among American teens began to surge around 2012. -Atlantic
EQUALITY FREEDOM
87% of Americans think the cost of health care is a big or moderately big problem
Sixty-nine percent of registered voters in the April 19-20, 2020 survey support providing medicare to every American, just down 1 percentage point from a Oct. 19-20, 2018 poll, and within the poll’s margin of error. Popularity for Medicare for All grew slightly among Democratic voters, with a 2 percentage point increase from 2018. Support among independent voters was steady at 68 percent. However, support among Republican voters declined 6 percentage points over the course of two years, from 52 percent support in 2018 to 46 percent in 2020.
A January 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 77% of Democrats “Favor having a national health plan, sometimes called Medicare for All, in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan.” A December 2019 NBC/WSJ poll found that 68% of Democrats supported “Adopting Medicare for All, a single-payer health care system in which private health insurance would be eliminated and all Americans would get their health coverage from one government plan,”—which was up from 63% in September 2019.
A public citizen article about Medicare for All polling biases
New polling from Data for Progress finds that 90 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 69 percent of Republicans agree the federal government should negotiate prices with prescription drug companies to lower the cost of essential medications.
Sixty-eight percent of voters — including Republicans by a +18-point margin, Independents by a +39-point margin, and Democrats by a +72-point margin — believe that we should establish publicly built and owned drug manufacturing facilities so the government can make critical medicines available at a lower cost.
President Biden is also considering expanding Medicare to cover Americans who have medical problems after being exposed to a public health hazard, such as lead water pipes. This Medicare expansion is supported by 89 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of Independents, and 62 percent of Republicans.
Biden may further expand Medicare to cover medically necessary dental care for people with certain conditions like diabetes, cancer, and Parkinson's disease. This expanded Medicare coverage is supported by 83 percent of voters, including Republicans by a +50-point margin, Independents by a +73-point margin, and Democrats by a +86-point margin.
While investments in physical infrastructure are very popular with voters, we find that likely voters see policies contained in the Build Back Better Plan, including expanding Medicare benefits, investing in long-term care, and raising taxes on the wealthy, as the most important elements of the Biden agenda. ● Specifically, 76% of voters see a provision of the Build Back Better plan as their top priority within Biden’s agenda. ● Among Independent / Third Party voters, 74% identify a provision of the Build Back Better Plan as the most important part of the Biden agenda. ● Investing in caregiving, lowering health care costs, and expanding the use of clean energy paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations is an agenda that is both popular and seen as a priority for likely voters.
Young voters overwhelmingly support policies pushed by Democrats and progressives. Although many Democrats weren’t popular in this survey, Democratic and progressive policies were, with overwhelming support for proposals to…creating a Medicare for All plan was popular too, earning 73% support among young voters.
Eighty eight percent of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Preventable disease costs $1.36 trillion/year, accounting for at least 27% of total healthcare spending ($5 trillion in 2024)—more than the entire Pentagon budget.
Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you’ve likely seen the statistics: Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent. The decline in mental health is just one of many signs that something went awry. Loneliness and friendlessness among American teens began to surge around 2012. -Atlantic
HEALTHY MINDS / BODIES FREEDOM
A recent study led by the University of Chicago economist Leonardo Bursztyn captured the dynamics of the social-media trap precisely. The researchers recruited more than 1,000 college students and asked them how much they’d need to be paid to deactivate their accounts on either Instagram or TikTok for four weeks. That’s a standard economist’s question to try to compute the net value of a product to society. On average, students said they’d need to be paid roughly $50 ($59 for TikTok, $47 for Instagram) to deactivate whichever platform they were asked about. Then the experimenters told the students that they were going to try to get most of the others in their school to deactivate that same platform, offering to pay them to do so as well, and asked, Now how much would you have to be paid to deactivate, if most others did so? The answer, on average, was less than zero. In each case, most students were willing to pay to have that happen.
A recent meta-analysis contains yet overlooks evidence that multi-week social media reduction experiments consistently improve mental health
Most young Americans under 30 (52%) report feeling “down, depressed, or hopeless” for several days or more in the past two weeks. Unlike many other areas in the survey, there are no statistical differences based on age, level of education, race, ethnicity, or whether someone lives in the city, suburb, small town, or rural area. At least 50% of every subgroup in these categories indicate symptoms. We did however find that young women (59%) were more likely than men (44%) to report these symptoms, as were Democrats (56%) over Republicans (41%).
While 24% of 18-to-29-year-olds report having thoughts at least several times in the last two weeks that they would be “better off dead” or of “hurting themselves,” this represents a slight improvement over the 28% who said the same one year ago. These feelings are more prevalent in young Americans who are:
Black (35%) or AAPI (33%);
Female (26%);
LGBTQ (39%); and
In a “bad” financial position (35%).
Nearly three-quarters of young Americans overall (72%), and those on both sides of the aisle – 76% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans – agree that “the United States has a mental health crisis.” Only six percent (6%) of respondents disagreed.
About a quarter of young Americans (26%) know of a peer or family member who has died from suicide. Nearly two-in-five (38%) of LGBTQ-identifying youth know someone. Those who know someone who has died from suicide have a higher rate of feeling depressed (62% compared to 49%) and of having thoughts of self-harm (30% compared to 21).
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of whites suffering from thoughts of self-harm have access to support or resources, while only 40% of Blacks say the same.
Among those suffering from bouts of depression or hopelessness, 61% say they have access to support, but that number dips to 48% for Blacks, compared to 68% of young whites.
When young Americans suffering from depression or hopelessness were asked their interest in several potential support services and resources, we found the most interest in spending time outside (50% interested), support of family and friends (47%), and sports or exercise (43%). Additionally, we found that nearly two-fifths (38%) were interested in professional therapy, followed by meditation (29%), prescription medication (26%), church or religion (18%), alcohol or recreational drugs (18%), and support by authority figures (8%).
Nearly half of 18-to-29-year-olds (45%) report that politics has had a negative impact on their mental health and only 13% report a positive impact. Among those who identify as LGBTQ, the rate is nearly two-thirds (64%), while 42% for straight youth. Young Americans who do not identify with a major party are more likely than others (17% independent, 12% Democrat, 11% Republican) to say that politics has had a very negative impact on their mental health. Similarly, 46% report that the news media have a negative impact on their mental health.
Nearly two-in-five (37%) report that social media has a negative impact on their mental health, while 22% report a positive impact and 39% report no effect. There is no statistical difference based on age, but we found that young women (42%) were somewhat more likely to cite negative mental health effects of social media than young men (35%).
On the other hand, 45% report that work has had a positive impact on their mental health and only 21% report a negative impact. The fact that over three-quarters of young Americans find that work does not have a negative impact on their mental health accords with a finding from the Fall 2021 survey, in which 72% of respondents said that, outside of compensation, they find “some” or “a lot” of meaning in their work.
We find that 80 percent of likely voters support a policy of providing mental health treatment instead of placing people in solitary confinement.
The People’s Response Act would create a federal first-responders unit to fund professionally trained first responders, a grant program to fund community-based organizations and their approaches to crisis situations, and a federal body at the Department of Health and Human Services to oversee other non-punitive approaches to public safety. Radically increasing transparency and community oversight, plus disarming the police of their military arsenals, are bare minimums for meaningful criminal justice reform, as hyper-policed communities have been advocating for years. Over the past several decades, the role of police has increasingly grown to surveil communities in order to manage the consequences of the retreating welfare state. As a result, police are also often the first, and sometimes only, responders to the daily problems of living without adequate material resources, economic opportunities, and public investments, including mental health and substance use crises, homelessness, domestic violence, and school discipline infractions.
Mental Health Justice Act would fund mental health responders to 911 calls for cities and counties.
To create safer communities, voters prefer investments in mental healthcare (88% support), poverty alleviation, and behavioral health crisis response over adding 100,000 more police officers to the streets (62% support). Source: YouGov Blue April 2024 nationwide survey.
Encode Justice mobilizes young people worldwide (most members are college students, part of the generation that will have to deal with A.I.’s short-term impacts and future societal disruption) to advocate for a safer, more democratic “human-centered A.I.,” managed to serve the public interest. Encode Justice has already had an impact on the Biden administration’s executive order on A.I., and the group is at work on more far-reaching goals, with an eye on influencing international cooperation on A.I. regulation.
Number of emergency-department visits for nonfatal self-harm per 100,000 children (source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Percentage of U.S. high-school seniors who agreed with the statement “Life often seems meaningless.” (Source: Monitoring the Future)
According to one poll, 40 percent of Black voters and 37 percent of all Democratic voters say they might stay home in 2022 without debt cancellation.
When it comes to student loans, 85% of young Americans favor some form of government action on student loan debt, but only 38% favor total debt cancellation.
Overall, 50% of young Americans ranked education as one of the two most important factors to America’s global strength in the future; fewer Republicans (39%) rated education as one of the top two factors than Democrats (54%); Democrats ranked education first among all factors, including above the economy.
The United States currently exceeds $1.7 trillion in education debt and about 10 million people are estimated to be in delinquency or default.
We then asked voters if the federal government should eliminate no, some, or all student loan debt for every borrower. On average, across the six surveys this was asked, 62 percent of voters believe that the federal government should eliminate some or all student loan debt, while only 32 percent of voters believe the federal government should not eliminate any student debt — a near 2-to-1 margin.
When pooling data from the six surveys, we find that 82 percent of likely Democratic voters support student loan debt cancellation, and this strong support holds true across Democrats of all ages. Even Democrats over the age sixty support the federal government canceling all or some student loan debt by a 4 to 1 margin.
We also find that Independent voters support student loan cancellation by a 2 to 1 margin
54% of 18-29, 60% of 30-39 Republicans support some or all student debt cancellation
Advocates and many Democratic members of Congress have urged President Biden to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt for every borrower, saying that providing only $10,000 in relief would eliminate student loans for millions of Americans, but still leave most student loan borrowers in debt. In fact, we find that an average of 54 percent of voters support the federal government eliminating $50,000 in student loan debt for every borrower.
Mass cancellation of student loan debt is not only very politically popular, but also will reduce the racial wealth gap and boost the economy
Student loan debt makes up the second biggest share of household debt, according to the Brookings Institution. About 45 million Americans hold student loan debt with a total national outstanding amount over $1.7 trillion. Borrowers with outstanding education debt typically hold between $20,000 and $24,999, according to the Federal Reserve's 2020 US households report using 2019 data.
Black students shoulder a heavier debt burden than their white peers: About 87% of Black students attending four-year colleges take out student loans compared to about 60% of white students. They also owe $7,400 more on average than their white peers after graduating, per Brookings.
While Kahn said the think tank doesn't have a certain amount they suggest for debt forgiveness, an updated paper based on the latest data suggests that forgiveness of $75,000, "would be a more appropriate level to increase household wealth, help close the racial wealth gap, and boost our struggling economy."
Providing $10,000 in relief to the country’s 43 million existing borrowers would cost an estimated $373 billion, according to the Brookings Institution.
Moody’s stated that student loan debt had doubled in the prior 10 years, growing faster than any other category of household debt. All of this has been impacted by higher college enrollments, rising undergraduate costs, an increase in borrowing, and a reduction in state funding to public four-year institutions.
And there are downsides for Americans who take on too much student loan debt, including weaker creditworthiness, reduced consumption and investment, and widening income and wealth inequality. This debt can hold people back from making decisions that would benefit the broader economy, such as buying a home, having children, and starting businesses.
A transfer of wealth of these magnitudes would have a positive effect on the economy, but the “bang for the buck is quite low” compared with other, more progressive endeavors, says Looney (a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings who worked on student loan debt proposals in the U. S. Department of the Treasury during the Obama administration), who’s also a professor of finance at the University of Utah. Because people with student loan debt generally earn more money, they won’t benefit as much from relief as other groups would.’
Adam Looney, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, presented a spirited testimony about sustainable solutions to the student loan crisis to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs’ Subcommittee on Economic Policy in April. He argued that programs intended to mitigate student loan debt, such as forgiveness programs, need to target their relief on the basis of income, race, or degree level. Otherwise, he said, these programs may end up exacerbating existing inequalities even further. Blanket student loan forgiveness programs end up intensifying disparities between more- and less-educated Americans by significantly easing the economic burden on high-income borrowers. Looney contended that programs must instead help past borrowers while also providing for future students.
The most commonly-discussed policy solution for rising student debt is widespread loan forgiveness, which Looney claimed would “rank among the largest transfer programs in American history.” However, unlike many programs of comparable size such as unemployment insurance or food stamps, most beneficiaries of blanket student loan forgiveness would actually be high-income, white students. As an alternative, Looney suggested that we must target relief through income-based repayment plans.
An income-based system determines a student’s repayment amount based on their discretionary income and then forgives any remaining undergraduate debt after 20 years. According to Looney, however, our existing program is riddled with flaws, including repayment complexity, administrative barriers, and a preference for high-income graduate degree earners rather than lower-income borrowers. To improve this system, Looney advocated for “making enrollment and re-enrollment automatic, reducing paperwork burdens, and accelerating forgiveness for borrowers with smaller balances.”
EDUCATION FREEDOM
Do you support or oppose legislation that would create an earned path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, people who are contributing and working here legally due to war or natural disaster in their home countries, and farmworkers and other essential workers? SUPPORT (NET) +46 All, +70 D, +58 I, +13 R (see Dream and Promise Act, to create a roadmap to citizenship for Dreamers and TPS holders, as well as the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, to do the same for farmworkers.)
Giving permanent status to DACAs is supported by 74% of voters, including a majority of Repubs, and there are 12 million of them.
Young voters overwhelmingly support policies pushed by Democrats and progressives. Although many Democrats weren’t popular in this survey, Democratic and progressive policies were, with overwhelming support for proposals to provide a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers (79%)
71 percent of voters in six congressional districts want a fair, orderly, humane system. “The immigration system is broken. We have many people who want to become citizens and who already contribute to our economy and communities. We need to create a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system that manages the border and provides a path to citizenship for longtime residents.” Source: Impact Research March 2024 survey of six battleground Congressional districts in AZ, CA, NJ, and OH (from proprietary Research Collaborative presentation)
81 percent of voters in six key battleground states support a pathway to citizenship for longtime residents who are undocumented and pass a background check. Including 74% of Republicans (see above for citation)
Violence, political instability, food insecurity, extreme weather, and severe economic hardships related to COVID-19 have changed the landscape of migration in the Western Hemisphere. Data from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) show that many countries in the Americas—not only the United States—are seeing a rise in the number of people seeking asylum, with countries that have not seen many asylum-seekers in the past becoming hosts to large numbers of people seeking protection.
While Congress rejected many Trump-era proposals, overall foreign aid for the Central American strategy declined by 33 percent from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2021. Furthermore, the Trump administration unilaterally suspended vital foreign aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras after thousands of people from those countries sought asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. This led to the cancellation of many aid programs seeking to alleviate some of the causes of irregular migration.
“Root cause” spending during the Biden/Harris administration began to see some success, but was funded at less than $1 billion per year, or just about one percent of the Department of Homeland Security budget (2024) versus the ten percent that could be transformative.
IMMIGRATION FREEDOM
How to design a tech regulation: A modest proposal for a transatlantic self-equilibrating system
“Disenshittify or Die.” The enshittification of the internet follows a predictable trajectory: first, platforms are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. It doesn't have to be this way.
Today, approximately 19 million Americans, or 6 percent of the population, live without access to broadband services. In rural areas, the number is as high as one-fourth of the population, and in tribal areas, it can reach one-third. Over 40 million Americans lack high-speed Internet, widening disparities in access to work, school, healthcare, and more.
For many Americans in rural communities, accessing the Internet is a matter of having the infrastructure in place to support it. An overwhelming majority of voters (75 percent) agree that utility companies should invest more to expand high-speed internet access. This includes 80 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Independence, and 72 percent of Republicans.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the economic power of big tech companies is a problem facing the US economy. 2021
59% of Americans (61% of Republicans) support breaking up big tech monopolies
INTERNET FREEDOM
When young Americans suffering from depression or hopelessness were asked their interest in several potential support services and resources, we found the most interest in spending time outside (50% interested), support of family and friends (47%), and sports or exercise (43%).