"The agreement between President Obama and congressional Republicans to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits is getting strong bipartisan support," the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press writes today, adding that "overall, 60 percent approve of the agreement while just 22% disapprove."
The pollsters also say that:
"There are virtually no partisan differences in opinions about the agreement -- 63 percent of Democrats approve of it, as do 62 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents. Among Democrats, liberals are as supportive of the agreement as are conservative and moderate Democrats."
Pew's Dec. 9-12 national survey of 1,011 adults has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points on results based on the total survey group. Results from sub-surveys of smaller groups have higher margins of error. Pew spells out its methodology here.
Here's the question Pew asked:
"As you may know, Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans have reached an agreement to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits. From what you’ve read and heard, do you strongly approve, approve, disapprove or strongly disapprove of this plan?"
There's a "test vote" in the Senate later today on the tax deal.
Update at 3:20 p.m. ET. A new USA TODAY/Gallup poll comes up with a different take:
"Forty-nine percent of those surveyed support passage of the deal -- a plurality but not quite a majority -- while a third oppose it and nearly one in five say they're not sure."
That weekend survey of 1,019 adults has a margin of error of +/—4 percentage points.
USA TODAY's Susan Page writes that the public response to the deal is "tepid."
We've updated the headline above to incorporate the news from USA TODAY and Gallup.
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