Democrats zero in on cost of living to sell Biden agenda: memo

Democrats running in competitive Senate races are being urged to zero in on the issue of the cost of living in an effort to sell President Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislative agenda, according to a polling memo released exclusively to The Hill. 

The polling memo for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee found that the message was one of the top-performing messages of the more than 360 messages tested by Senate Democrats so far in this cycle.

“Democrats say you should support [candidate] because they’re proposing legislation to reduce the cost of living for all Americans,” the message in the memo read. “They say that their plans lower the cost of health care, child care, elder care, and cut taxes for millions of working families. They’re making sure that their plans are fully paid for by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share – but no one making less than $400,000 will pay any more taxes.” 

The memo was conducted by OpenLabs, which collected survey responses from Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2. 

Additionally, the memo found that variations of the message were also effective when including examples like “amount of money health insurance premiums were being reduced by, the tax cut an average family would receive, and specific programs to reduce costs for seniors and parents.” 

Among the most popular policy issues tested, policies reducing the price of prescription drug prices received 55 percent support from voters. Messaging around lowering the cost of health care, including expanding coverage and reducing the cost of premiums, was particularly effective among those in the 18-34 age range. 

The findings also found that Democrats should continue to tie Republicans to “the ultra-rich” or “big corporations.” 

The memo comes as Democrats work to pass Biden’s Build Back Better legislative agenda through the Senate as Republicans attack it as a liberal tax and spending spree. Senate Democrats are expressing optimism that they will be able to pass the spending package through the upper chamber by the end of the year, but it’s likely the $1.7 trillion legislation could go through some major changes before being passed in the Senate. 

Democrats maintain that the Build Back Better legislation, along with the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure package, will be key when competing in next year’s midterm elections. The Senate is currently split 50-50 with Vice President Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote.