Congressional Republicans risk backlash as they unite against Biden's Covid relief plan

Democrats and Republicans tangled over the size and scope of Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan Wednesday, despite the broad public support for the package and a new push by business leaders to get it passed -- a sign of the difficulties facing the new President, who had hoped to be a bridge beyond Washington's partisan gridlock.

But with the bill headed to the House floor for a vote as early as Friday, Republicans face significant political risk by forming a unified front of opposition to the legislation, especially given that nearly 7 in 10 Americans supported the bill in a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month. After losing control of the White House and the US Senate in November, and still relegated to the minority in the US House, Republican leaders hope to win back suburban voters in 2022, in part by earning their trust that they would do a better job than Democrats easing the transition back to normal life after the Covid-19 pandemic. One area the GOP has been heavily focused on is getting kids back into school, for example, because they see it as a winning issue at the ballot box in 2022. Yet their opposition to Biden's legislation could complicate those efforts, since many members will likely end up on the record voting against a Covid relief bill that would provide money for exactly that purpose.