Americans continue to “maintain a poor view of the state of the economy” and have little hope of improvement. Negative public views drive President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings in most categories, ABC News mentionted on Sunday.
New ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that 69 percent of Americans think the economy is getting worse, 18 percent say it’s staying the same, and only 12 percent think it’s getting better. Nearly half of Democrats and majorities of Republicans and independents agree the economy is in decline, as do 64 percent who say they are “very excited” about voting in the midterm elections.
Americans’ opinion of Biden’s handling of the economy is overwhelmingly negative, with only 37% saying they are satisfied. 62% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy and 69% disapprove of his handling of inflation.
“On both issues, majorities of independents disapprove of the job Biden is doing (66 percent and 73 percent on the respective issues),” the poll report said.
The report notes that “a majority of Americans continue to disapprove of the job he is doing on every issue under review except the response to the coronavirus.” Ten of the 11 issues tested in the survey were not “significantly changed” since June, except gas prices. 34% of respondents now approve of Biden’s handling of gas prices compared to 27% in June.
Overall, the poll found that Americans trust Republicans more to handle issues such as crime rates, inflation and the economy.
“This pattern holds true among those who say they are very excited about voting in the midterm elections this November,” the poll report says.
The poll was conducted on August 5-6 with a random national sample of 665 adults. Party divisions are 29-25-40 (Democrat-Republican-Independent), and the margin of sampling error is ± 4.2 percentage points.
