Bidenomics has not cut much ice with the American voters, with new poll results published on Sunday showing that voters’ approval of President Joe Biden’s economic policies took a further dent.
Approval Rating Slips: Merely 39% of the respondents said they strongly/somewhat approved of Biden’s handling of the economy, down a percentage point from the April poll, data from FT-Michigan Ross’ nationwide poll conducted between May 2-6 showed. The poll surveyed 1,003 respondents and has a margin of error of +/-3.1%.
The proportion of respondents who said they strongly/somewhat disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy rose from 64% in April to 68% in May.
After seeing a nice four-point tick-up to 43% in April, the approval rating for Biden’s handling of his job as president edged down a point to a net of 42% in May. The net disapproval rating was at 56%, up from 53% in April. FT said the approval rating will make for a “depressing reading among the White House's incumbents.”
What’s Behind Disgruntlement: The bulk of the negativity revolved around something Biden often flaunts as his achievement. A majority of respondents rate their personal financial situation and the overall economic conditions negatively.
- A net of 56% of the respondents said they were surviving (just meeting expenses/having trouble meeting expenses).
- A net of 71% had a negative view about overall economic conditions in the country (not so good/poor).
- A net of 51% said they were financially worse off since Biden has become president (somewhat worse off/much worse off).
- Nearly half of the respondents (49%) said Biden’s economic policies have hurt the economy (hurt the economy somewhat/hurt the economy a lot).
See Also: Best Inflation Stocks
Key Voter Issues: Eighty percent of the respondents chose price increases when they were asked to pick the three biggest sources of financial stress personally from a given list. Personal income level was mentioned by 49%, rent by 32%, credit cards by 26%, medical expenses by 23%, investment losses by 13%, and mortgage costs and loss of employment by 11% each.
The Biden camp has another reason to worry as well. When asked what would be the most important criteria that would help them decide whether they would vote for Biden, 55% mentioned economic issues like jobs and cost of living, 35% immigration and border security and 32% each future of social security and Medicare as well as crime, public safety and gun violence.
Among specific economic issues, inflation was picked as the top issue (61%), the respondents would consider while zeroing in on their presidential choice. They also mentioned other price-related issues such as gas prices (34%), housing costs (27%) and healthcare costs (24%).
Threats to democracy and the future of abortion policy ranked down in the order of importance for voters, with these mentioned by 24% and 21% of the respondents, respectively.
Inflation has proved to be stickier than expected. After rising to a cycle peak past 9% in the summer of 2022, inflation began to trend lower, giving rise to hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon start reversing its rate hikes. The declining trend has stalled this year, though. The annual rates of core consumer price inflation and the core price consumption expenditure – the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge have stubbornly stayed above the central bank’s 2% target.
The consumer price inflation report for April is due on Wednesday, with economists, on average, expecting a 3.6% annual rate for core consumer prices, down from 3.8% in March. The year-over-year rate of consumer prices is also expected to tick down one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.4%.
Trump Trusted: Former President Donald Trump continued to score over Biden in terms of trust in handling the economy. Forty-three percent said they trust Trump better to handle the economy compared to 35% who said the same about Biden.
A sizeable proportion (16%) said they trust neither.
The iShares TIPS Bond ETF TIP, an ETF tracking the investment results of an index composed of inflation-protected U.S. Treasury bonds, last traded up 0.16% $106.21, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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