Bidenomics Fail: Biden’s Economic Approval Rating Still Just 37%

The push by the Biden administration to promote its economic record under the label “Bidenomics” has not given much of a lift to President Joe Biden’s economic approval rating, a poll released by CNBC showed Thursday.

The president’s economic approval rating rose by just three percentage points compared to the prior survey in April. It now stands at 37 percent approving and 58 percent disapproving, according to the CNBC All-America Economic Survey.  Despite a net negative of 21 points, this is better than the net negative 34 reading last summer.

The gain was driven by increasing approval among Democrats, CNBC said.

The share of the public who view the economy as excellent or good rose six points but remains very low at 20 percent. Seventy-nine percent say the economy is just fair or poor, down from 85 percent in the April survey. Forty-seven percent say the economy is poor, the worst rating.

Only 24 percent of the public believe the economy will improve in the next year, up six points compared with April but worse than the surveys from November and October. Forty-three percent expect the economy will get worse.

Thirty percent of the public say inflation is their top concern, more than twice as many as any other issue. In October, the last time CNBC asked the public to rank issues, inflation was the top issue for 27 percent. “Threats to democracy” is listed as the top concern by 14 percent and immigration and the border by 12 percent.

Republicans have solid leads over Democrats on economic issues.  Thirty-nine percent said Republicans have “policies that have a positive effect on your personal financial situation,” with just 28 percent saying Democrats do. Forty percent said Republicans are better at dealing with the economy, 16 points higher than Democrats. Forty-three percent say they trust Republicans more on inflation, putting the GOP 18 points ahead of the Democrats.

The survey also asked which of the following things is most responsible for high inflation: government spending, companies trying to increase profits, and higher worker pay and labor costs. Fifty-one percent blamed government spending and 34 percent increased profits. Just 9 percent said they blamed labor costs. Six percent say they were not sure.
Republicans lead on the issue of bringing down energy costs at 37 to the Democrats at 30. Asked which party has “policies that have a positive effect on your job situation,” 34 percent chose Republicans versus 26 percent who said Democrats.

On housing affordability and reducing the cost of health care, however, Democrats have big leads over Republicans.