Americans continue to “maintain a sour view on the state of the economy” and have little hope of it improving. Negative public opinions are driving President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings across most categories, ABC News reported on Sunday.
A new ABC News/ Ipsos poll shows that 69 percent of Americans believe the economy is worsening, 18 percent say it is staying the same, and only 12 percent think it is improving. Almost half of Democrats and a majority of Republicans and independents agree the economy is declining, as do 64 percent of those who say they are “very enthusiastic” about voting in the midterms.
Americans’ opinion of Biden’s handling of the economy is overwhelmingly negative, with only 37 percent who report being satisfied. Sixty-two percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy, and 69 percent disapprove of how he is handling inflation.
“On both issues, a majority of independents disapprove of the job Biden is doing (66 percent and 73 percent on the respective issues),” the poll report states.
The report notes that “a majority of Americans continue to disapprove of the job he’s doing on every single issue tested, except the response to the coronavirus.” Ten of the 11 issues tested in the survey did not “significantly change” since June, except for gas prices. Thirty-four percent of those polled now approve of Biden’s handling of gas prices compared to 27 percent in June.
Overall, the poll found that Americans trust Republicans more to handle issues like crime rates, inflation, and the economy.
“This pattern holds true among those who indicate they are very enthusiastic about voting in the midterms this November,” the poll report states.
The poll was conducted on August 5-6 with a random national sample of 665 adults. The partisan divisions are 29-25-40 (Democrats- Republicans-independents), and the margin of sampling error is ± 4.2 percentage points.