Republican leader Kevin McCarthy says voters overwhelmingly support Biden's stimulus bill because they don't understand it

• McCarthy said voters support Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus because they don't know what's in it.
• "This isn't a relief bill, it's pretty much a payoff for Pelosi's political allies," he said.
• Recent polling shows 75% of registered voters are in favor of the stimulus package.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Punchbowl News on Thursday that Americans overwhelmingly support President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus package because they don't understand what's in the American Rescue Plan.

He also falsely claimed in his interview with Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News that former President Barack Obama's $800 billion economic stimulus legislation, which went into effect in 2009, had similarly high approval ratings. Neither Biden's nor Obama's relief packages found any support among GOP lawmakers, but Biden's COVID-19 stimulus package has attracted significantly higher public approval than Obama's did.

A spokesperson for McCarthy didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

"This isn't a relief bill, it's pretty much a payoff for Pelosi's political allies, and it will be the American people paying the bill," McCarthy said in a statement on Thursday.

-Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 11, 2021

Even as GOP politicians have attacked the American Rescue Plan as too costly, a majority - 54% - of Republican voters support the law, which Biden signed into law on Thursday afternoon.

Polling by Politico and Morning Consult earlier this month found that 75% of registered voters support the stimulus package, and 59% of Republicans at least somewhat support it.

And Pew Research Center polling this week found that 70% of Americans favor the stimulus, while just 28% oppose it. Pew also found that Republican support for the stimulus increased significantly as the respondent's income decreased. While 63% of low-income Republicans and Republican-leaning respondents support the relief, just 37% of middle-income Republicans and 25% of high-income Republicans said the same.