Washington, D.C. (09/15/2022) – As Americans continue to struggle with stubborn inflation levels, polling continues to show that Americans would like Congress to spend its time focusing on our nation’s economic problems, not targeting our country’s most successful companies.
A new poll released this week from NetChoice and Echelon Insights provides the most recent evidence of where Americans’ priorities lie. Instead of pursuing flawed policies like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992), voters want Congress to focus on the economy and fixing inflation.
Here are some key takeaways from the new poll:
- The Economy Is The Priority: 61% of Americans said the economy is the most important issue facing the nation, while only 2% said regulating the tech industry is a priority. Overall, 89% of Americans said Congress should work on fixing inflation instead of breaking up tech companies.
- S. 2992 Will Make Inflation Worse: The survey found that 46% of voters agree regulations, like those found in S. 2992, will make inflation worse for consumers. Only 17% felt regulations would help lower costs.
- S. 2992 Won’t Help Competition: S. 2992 is supposed to level the playing field, but when it comes to competition 66% of voters said they believe the free market is the best way to resolve competition issues. Just 18% trust the government to address competition.
- Popular Products Should Not Be Threatened: 61% of respondents said they would be less likely to vote for politicians who support legislation that could hurt popular services like Amazon Prime’s two-day shipping.
This is just the latest in a string of polls showing that Americans do not want to prioritize legislation that will break services like Amazon Prime and Google Maps. For example:
- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AXIS Research found that after learning S. 2992 would negatively impact the free and inexpensive products Americans love, 79% of Republicans, 59% of Democrats, and 72% of Independents either “strongly opposed or somewhat opposed” S. 2992. 61% of Republicans, 42% of Democrats, and 53% of independents said they were more likely to oppose candidates who support S. 2992. AXIS also found only 5% of Americans support more regulation for large companies.
- The Consumer Technology Association found that 68% of Americans view inflation as the most important issue at the moment, while only 3% view regulation of large businesses as a priority. Meanwhile, many of the digital services that would be impacted by S. 2992 have a deflationary effect on the economy.
- According to the Progressive Policy Institute, 65% of voters say Congress should be helping U.S. businesses compete with foreign corporations in countries like China, while just 35% of Americans believe Congress should focus on regulation. S. 2992 would make it harder for U.S. companies to compete internationally and adversely impact our national security infrastructure.
- Statewide polls from the Chamber of Progress show that antitrust is not a priority for voters. Findings include:
- Regulating tech companies consistently ranked last in voter priorities, with only 3% of voters in states like New Hampshire and West Virginia indicating that the issue was important to them.
- 69% of Georgia voters and 62% of Arizona voters surveyed indicated that they think competition regulation would hurt consumers like them.
- 65% of Nevada voters and 63% of Georgia voters surveyed indicated that they would oppose laws that would restrict the availability of services like free two-day shipping.
Find more information about these polls and more here.
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