Biden's jobs and family plans are broadly popular—but only if people know about them

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A Politico/Morning Consult poll this week highlighted one of the challenges the White House still faces in both passing President Joe Biden’s agenda and then getting credit for it with voters next year. The survey found that 61% of respondents were not familiar with the “American Jobs Plan” and 62% were not familiar with the “American Families Plan”—two proposals that lie at the heart of Biden’s agenda and stand to fundamentally transform the nation’s economic landscape.

Just over a third of respondents had heard of each plan and correctly identified them as Democratic proposals.

Together, the proposals represent roughly $4 trillion in spending that the White House and congressional Democrats are trying to marshal into law either with Republican help or without it. The measures would create millions of jobs, transform the labor market through free job training and educational opportunities, enhance the social safety net with increased spending on child care and parental leave, and make historic investments in climate change and clean-energy initiatives.

The fact that Americans don’t know much about the plans isn’t surprising in some ways—they’re incredibly ambitious and the legislation is yet to be written. In fact, it’s still unclear whether Biden’s proposals will be folded into one bill or several bills.

But what is clear is that multiple polls have shown many of the initiatives included in Biden’s plans are incredibly popular. To name several specifics:

<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/30/2028388/-Americans-on-Biden-s-2-3-trillion-jobs-plan-If-it-s-what-you-say-I-love-it">70% support</a> fixing highways, bridges, and roads; expanding high speed broadband; upgrading/building new schools; modernizing our electric grid; and investing in clean energy
Nearly <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/27/2032436/-Clean-energy-is-super-popular-It-s-also-a-central-plank-of-Biden-s-jobs-plan">70% of voters</a> support Biden's climate change and clean energy initiatives
Roughly<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/12/2030197/-Universal-pre-K-is-broadly-popular-with-room-to-grow-Democrats-should-hammer-it-at-every-turn"> 60% of voters</a> support free universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds
Almost <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/5/2029079/-Americans-like-Biden-s-families-plan-especially-universal-preschool">two-thirds favor </a><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/5/5/2029079/-Americans-like-Biden-s-families-plan-especially-universal-preschool">ensuring</a> that low- to middle-income families pay no more than 7% of income on child care 
Almost <a href="https://democrats.org/news/new-poll-americans-broadly-support-the-details-of-president-bidens-american-jobs-plan/">two-thirds support</a> advanced training for millions of workers in manufacturing and other industries

The succession of polls, conducted by multiple outlets, have been numerous and consistent, and they all basically point in the same direction—the public widely supports the provisions in Biden’s plans and the more they hear about them the better.