A record high of 66 percent of Americans are “pessimistic” about the future of President Joe Biden’s economy, a CNBC study found.
The lack of faith contrasts with the optimism about former President Donald Trump’s economy, when 43 percent of Americans were optimistic, and only 32 percent felt pessimistic.
Pessimism about Biden’s economy is a record 17-year high, the survey showed:
- 2018: 32 percent pessimistic, 43 optimistic
- 2008: 51 percent pessimistic, 7 percent optimistic
The pessimism appears to confirm polling that shows only 14 percent of voters say Biden’s economic policies helped them, while 85 percent said they either hurt or made no difference.
For many, so-called “Bidenomics” simply fails to help average Americans.
A recent LendingClub study found:
- 62 percent of adults in December said they are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 58 percent in March
- 40 percent of consumers living paycheck to paycheck with super-prime credit scores
- 57 percent of credit cards owned by consumers are living paycheck to paycheck
Democrat pollster Stanley Greenberg told CNN on Monday that Biden must stop talking up progress on the economy if he wants to win reelection, noting disposable income fell since May:
[W]hat matters is how many months people have been struggling to deal with inflation. And each month, they get madder and madder about it as long as their wages are trailing prices. … In the last six months, there has been a decline in disposable income. So, the context is, you have to start there. Inflation is like 30 points higher than the next problem. And you can’t — what the President currently is doing, is his tweets always start with, we’re making progress, and then he mentions prices. If you look at his ads aimed at black voters, [they’re] mainly trying to convince them they’re doing a good job. But that’s not where they are. They are not — they are losing ground every month and angered about it. But you have to stop, you have to say, what’s the main problem? How do you deal with the first problem, which is inflation and the cost of living?
“You have to stop on the notion that we’re making progress. You have to get where people are,” Greenberg added. “And where they are is on the rise in prices.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on “X” @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.