James Carvelle, the Democrats’ “Sage of the South” and the brains behind Bill Clinton’s defeat of incumbent President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 election kept the Clinton campaign on message by repeating ad nauseum “It’s the economy, stupid.”
If only Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and congressional leaders had that same kind of message discipline.
A Rassmussen Report survey released earlier this week found a majority of voters believe the economy has gotten worse under President Joe Biden, but most Democrats want to blame Republicans in Congress.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters think the U.S. economy has gotten worse since Biden became president, while 30% say the economy has gotten better and 16% believe the economy is about the same under Biden’s presidency.
Editor’s Note: That 30% who think the economy has gotten better probably represents the Democrat base vote, who would never, under any circumstance, criticize a Democrat in the White House.
The survey of 987 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on November 5-7, 2023 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of Likely Voters say Biden deserves more blame for current problems with the American economy, while 36% think Republicans in Congress deserve more blame and 25% believe Democrats in Congress are more to blame for economic problems.
Among voters who believe the economy has gotten worse since Biden became president, 53% think Biden is more to blame for problems with the economy. Among those who think the economy has gotten better under Biden, 74% place the blame for economic problems on Republicans in Congress.
Fifty-four percent (54%) of whites, 37% of black voters and 60% of other minorities think the economy has gotten worse since Biden became president.
Voters 65 and older are most likely to blame Biden more for problems in the economy, while those under 40 are more likely to think the economy has remained about the same since Biden entered the White House.
Private sector workers (56%) and retirees (52%) are more likely than government employees (37%) to say the economy has gotten worse during Biden’s presidency.
Breaking down the electorate by income categories, those in the highest bracket – earning more than $200,000 a year – are most likely to believe the economy has gotten better since Biden became president.
If you find these numbers to be confusing or possibly contradictory, you’re not alone. A different Rassmussen Reports survey found only thirty-one percent (31%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction when it was in the field during the week ending November 9, 2023.
What’s more, Rassmussen’s presidential tracking poll shows that only 45% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Biden’s job performance. Fifty-three percent (53%) disapprove.
The latest figures include only 24% who Strongly Approve of the job Biden is doing and 43% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.
And Biden’s numbers on the economy would likely be worse if it weren’t for the establishment media propping him up with headlines like this one from the Washington Post: The US Economy Is Great. Stop Worrying About It.
Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, observed in a column for Reason, 'Bidenomics' Is Failing Everyday Americans, “superficially, the economy looks solid. As measured by real gross domestic product (GDP), it increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the second quarter of 2023. While August's unemployment rate rose to 3.8 percent, that's still considered full employment by economists. Wages are rising, and we are often told that we're in a manufacturing boom.”
But, wrote Ms. De Rugy, “these numbers need perspective. Because we lost millions of jobs during the pandemic, employment growth was inevitable. Many of the jobs lost were going to come back as the economy reopened. Unemployment is low, but only because the economy is drunk on spending that is simultaneously closing many people out of the labor force. What's more, inflation-adjusted median household income has declined—from $76,330 in 2021 to $74,580 in 2022.”
The end result, and the reason the wealthy think things are fine and those with incomes below $200,000 are not happy is that inflation – what we call Bidenflation – has made living paycheck-to-paycheck the new normal for middle America.
Chris Talgo, editorial director at The Heartland Institute, documented in an article for The Hill, living paycheck-to-paycheck makes it impossible for most people to put money aside for a rainy day, which explains why 66 percent of Americans cannot afford a $400 surprise expense.
Under Biden, Americans have been hit with higher prices for staple consumer goods, and wage gains have failed to keep pace with inflation. As a result, credit card debt is soaring. In fact, Americans’ total outstanding credit card debt just surpassed the $1 trillion threshold.
In fact, since Biden entered the Oval Office and launched his economic agenda, Americans’ credit card debt has increased by almost $300 billion. On a similar note, more than 20 million American households are behind on their utility bills.
Although Biden and Harris claim that Bidenomics is helping “Main Street” and reviving the “American Dream,” the opposite is occurring. Bidenomics may be intended to help the “little guy,” but in reality, it is increasing inequality because it is making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
No wonder 53% of Likely U.S. Voters think the U.S. economy has gotten worse since Biden became president.
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