Fox News poll: Nearly 50% of people want government to 'do more' to solve problems

Fox News claimed on Friday, as the House of Representatives was voting to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion jobs bill, that voters “don’t like” what Biden is “selling,” criticizing the investment package and suggesting it was unpopular.

“The Democratic answer seems to be ‘spend more,'” Bill Hemmer, co-anchor of “America’s Newsroom,” said in a segment Friday morning. “…We did our polling, we released it last night, and you look at Virginia results, in New Jersey, other places, it just doesn’t seem like the American people are buying what this administration is selling.”

The Fox News poll to which Hemmer was presumably referring, released on Thursday, in fact showed nearly half of respondents in support of more government action.

The poll, which surveyed 1,003 registered voters across the country between Nov. 14-17, asked respondents to weigh in on whether the federal government is “doing too much and is too involved in things better left to individuals and businesses” or whether it should “do more to solve the problems facing the country today.”

A plurality of those surveyed, 49%, said the government should do more to help while 11% said the current level of government action is “about right.”

That figure is the highest it’s ever been, in the 11 years Fox News has asked the question on comparable surveys.

Additionally, the number of respondents who say the government is doing “too much” is at a low in Fox’s polling. In 2010, 50% of respondents answered in the affirmative. In the current poll, only 34% answered that the government was doing “too much.”

The poll results stand in contrast with the conservative mantra frequently embedded in Fox News programming, which argues against government intervention and opposes most measures intended to assist Americans, most recently those included in the Build Back Better plan.

For months, the Fox News has hosted guests like former Trump aide Stephen Miller, who appeared on the network to describe the purported impact of legislation like the investment package as “the complete destruction of the American economy.”

The conservative network has also mocked provisions in the bill meant to address climate change and environmental injustice, describing it as a “socialist wish list.”

At the same time, polling has repeatedly shown that the bill is popular with many Americans. A Morning Consult/Politico released on Nov. 2 showed broad support across the board for the package’s investments in clean energy, child care, health care, and affordable housing.

The Fox News poll this week also showed voters rejected the network’s position and disinformation other issues. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said that the COVID-19 vaccines are “safe and effective,” including for children, a contrast to the network’s frequent segments criticizing vaccines and related mandates.

On the same night the poll was released, the network’s lead primetime show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” hosted vaccine conspiracy theorist Alex Berenson, who falsely claimed that there is “no evidence” the vaccine halts infection or transmission of the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and prevention, in its guidance has repeatedly cited multiple studies from around the world showing that the vaccine is effective at preventing COVID-19.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.