As President Joe Biden touts his “Bidenomics” credentials ahead of a run for reelection in 2024, a clear majority of voters believe he is pursuing bad economic policies, a poll released Monday shows.
The results of the July Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll, a monthly collaboration between the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard (CAPS) and the Harris Poll and HarrisX, holds the bad news for the White House as Biden readies to run for reelection in 2024.
All up some 57 percent think Biden is not leading the country in the right economic direction with inflationary pressures hitting everyone across the board.
U.S. President Joe Biden during an event at Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Thursday, July 20, 2023. Biden’s rebranding of his economic policies has largely failed to convince the public key aspects of the economy are improving, according to a poll released Monday. (Hannah Beier/Getty)
“Inflation remains the elephant in the room and you can’t talk Americans out of their negative feelings about the economy,” said Mark Penn, Co-Director of the Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll and Stagwell Chairman and CEO. In brief, the polling reveals:
- Bidenomics faces an uphill battle: 57 percent think Biden is pursuing bad economic policies today and 56 percent think Republicans in Congress understand Americans’ economic problems better than Biden.
- Inflation is hitting Americans across the political spectrum: 76 percent of voters say inflation has impacted them and their family’s finances, with groceries as the area impacted most (chosen by 49 percent of voters).
- Sixty percent of voters think the inflation rate is continuing to increase even though that is not true.
- To regain people’s confidence in his ability to fix the economy, Biden must stabilize inflation, according to a plurality of voters in each party; the second-most popular choice is to cut federal spending.
The July Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll survey was conducted online within the United States from July 19-20, 2023, among 2,090 registered voters by HarrisX and The Harris Poll.
This is not the first time Americans have looked at their economic fortunes under Biden and shaken their collective heads even as the White House stands firm in its belief that things are getting better.
White House: ‘Pollsters Are Not Asking the Right Questions’ About Biden’s Economic Policies
As far back as March, 2022 about seven in ten Americans said Biden’s economy “is in bad shape,”as Breitbart News reported.
An Associated Press-NORC poll revealed nearly two-thirds of Americans disapproved of how he was handling the economy. Moreover, a majority of Americans said Biden’s own policies have hurt the economy instead of helped it.
More recently the president’s economic approval rating rose by just three percentage points earlier this month 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.