The mood in the United States is restless and worried. Amid persistent inflation and a falling stock market, most describe their sentiment this way, while the percentage who think the economy is bad hit a new high during the Biden presidency. As pessimism about markets, the economy and prices drives views on the future and outweighs optimism about jobs and the coronavirus, we also have the highest number of people who say the country as a whole has deteriorated under a Biden presidency . Enter summer.
Looking ahead, pessimism about the national economy, stock market and inflation is growing. In fact, of the items tested, perceptions of the cost of things were the most pessimistic, followed by pessimism about the national economy.
Most people are also pessimistic about their retirement plans, and two-thirds of those who have invested in the market after the stock market downturn are pessimistic about it.
but there Yes There is optimism about both jobs (the message highlighted by the White House) as well as efforts to combat COVID-19. It’s just that both are overpowered now when it comes to setting the public sentiment.
this The public never put all the blame on inflation in front of the White House. While most continue to disapprove of the president’s handling of inflation and the economy, those ratings haven’t changed much, for better or worse, perhaps because people remain pessimistic about these issues.
Mr. Biden did get a relatively high score for caring about others, not because of his responsiveness to events (though neither found a majority). Indeed, as the administration has been criticized for being slow to deal with inflation, this echoes the broader public criticism of Mr Biden that he has generally been slow to respond. It’s not just his political opponents who say this: More than a third of Democrats say the same about Mr. Biden.
The worse people think the economy is, the less they think Mr Biden is grappling with the nation’s pressing problems.
We do see other implications of all this for the president within his own party: While the president’s own party typically paints a more optimistic picture of the economy, just over half of Democrats now see the economy for the first time in Mr Biden’s term. Rated bad. Most Democrats now say the country is also in bad shape, and that has a lot to do with how they view the economy.
Some key groups supporting Mr. Biden in 2020 have also criticized him for being slow to respond, including most young people, most Hispanics and about half of black Americans who say so.
While most Democrats do say Mr Biden is struggling, key groups like young people and independents disagree. While not a widely held view, there has been a slight increase in the number of Democrats who consider Mr Biden’s actions “distracting”. Democrats who said Mr Biden was slow to respond to events were especially likely to say he was distracted — about half did.
Biden scored higher on handling the situation with Ukraine and Russia than inflation and the economy. He continues to receive positive reviews for his handling of the pandemic – despite a recent increase in cases in some areas, the public is optimistic. That combination has kept his overall approval rating in the mid-40s, where it has hovered since last fall.
This CBS News/YouGov survey is a nationally representative sample of 2,041 U.S. adult residents interviewed between May 18-20, 2022. Samples were weighted by sex, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Education. The current census, and the 2020 presidential election. The margin of error is ±2.5 points.
