U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the U.S. economy and his administration’s effort to revive American manufacturing, during his visit in Flex LTD, a factory that makes solar energy microinverters, in West Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. July 6, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Joe Biden’s economic approval numbers have risen modestly in the wake of efforts by the White House to promote what it calls “Bidenomics” and some improvement in inflation, but a substantial majority of respondents to the CNBC All-America Economic Survey still disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
The survey also found that Republicans hold double-digit leads on which party Americans believe is best to handle critical economic issues like inflation and jobs and that higher interest rates are beginning to hit Americans in their wallets.
The president’s economic approval rating inched up by 3 percentage points compared with the prior survey in April, with a 4-point drop in disapproval. It now stands at 37% approving and 58% disapproving. The 21 point net-negative rating rose substantially from negative 34 one year ago. It was driven by double-digits gains in approval from Democrats, but also men and retirees.
The survey showed small gains in Americans’ views on the economy, though to levels that remain depressed. The percentage of Americans saying the economy is excellent or good rose 6 points to a still-low 20%. The percentage saying the economy is just fair or poor declined 6 points to a still-high 79%. Just 24% of the public believes the economy will improve in the next year, a relatively low mark for the survey but up 6 points compared with April and the percentage expecting the economy to get worse fell 10 points to 43%.
“I think it’s some combination of the messaging (and) of people possibly legitimately starting to think that the economy is not quite as bad anymore,” said Jay Campbell, partner at Hart Research, which served as the Democratic pollster for the survey. Campbell cautioned the data only shows Americans believe “things are a little less horrible than they have been” and there isn’t enough data yet to know if the improvement is the beginning of a trend.
There’s little sense in the survey that the White House should celebrate. The president’s overall approval rating remains unchanged from the prior survey at 39% with 55% disapproving and marking only a 5-point improvement over the past year in his net-negative rating.
The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted July 12-16 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.
No. 1 issue: Inflation
It took place in the wake of ongoing efforts by the White House to promote the president’s economic record and with the unemployment rate remaining near all-time lows. Inflation, which had risen to nearly 9%, has fallen to around 3% but remains a point above levels before the Covid pandemic. Maybe more significantly, prices have not dropped so Americans continue to pay more for goods and services than they used to.
As a result, inflation was named the No. 1 issue by 30% of respondents. That’s more than double any of the other areas of concern, which include threats to democracy, immigration and border security, health care and crime.
And Americans believe Republicans have better policies than Democrats to handle the key economic issues, often by substantial margins. Republicans lead Democrats by double digits when asked which party would do a better job on the economy, inflation and improving the respondent’s personal financial situation. They lead by single digits when it comes to jobs and keeping energy costs down.
“Those are very broad, very important parts of economic confidence. That the Republicans have double digit leads … helps to understand and underpin the deficiencies that Biden has in those areas and on the economy broadly,” said Micah Roberts, partner at Public Opinion Strategies, which served as the Republican pollster for the survey.
Campbell added, “This is a tough set of results for Democrats at this moment. … It shows the degree to which Biden and the Democrats are really going to have to work very hard to make their case that they are better suited to run the economy going forward for the next four years. That’s a difficult case to make when people’s attitudes, while slightly better than they have been, are still pretty bad when it comes to the economy.”