WASHINGTON (AP) – As President Joe Biden embarks on his re-election campaign, only 33 percent of American adults say they approve of his handling of the economy and just 24 percent say national economic conditions are in good shape, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Public approval of Biden’s handling of the economy remains low at a time of high inflation, a struggling housing market and concerns about a possible default on the US government debt. American opinion is also dismal about Biden’s efforts on gun policy and immigration, with just 31 percent saying they approve of the president’s handling of these hot-button issues. Overall, 40% say they approve of the way Biden is doing his job, similar to where his approval rating has been for much of the past year and a half.
Zoie Mosqueda, 24, who does not identify with any political party, said her family is ready to buy their first home, but with the average mortgage interest rate hovering around 6.9 percent, this goal, at least for now, is out of reach.
The West Texas woman said she has also been frustrated with Biden’s handling of gun policy, saying he failed to follow through on his campaign promise to implement fairer immigration policy.
A recent spate of mass shootings across the country, including this month’s shooting at a mall in Allen, Texas, that left eight victims dead and seven others wounded, has him wishing that Biden and lawmakers in Washington do more to address the scourge of gun violence. .
Even among Democrats, the poll finds that only half approve of his handling of immigration and gun policy.
“Everything feels a little crazy right now in this economy,” said Mosqueda, a mother of two who works in a grocery store and is looking to open her own business, explaining her disapproval of Biden’s performance. “My oldest daughter is in school now and I worry that this lack of things about gun policy might affect her.”
Biden was due to return early Monday from a visit to Hiroshima, Japan, for the annual G7 summit, where the global economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took center stage.
The summit was overshadowed by the Biden administration’s negotiations with Republican lawmakers to increase US borrowing authority to avoid an early June default that could have a severe impact on the global economy. Before leaving for Japan, Biden canceled scheduled stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia so he could return to the US to focus on debt limit talks.
“It would be a total catastrophe for the country if they don’t agree to do something,” said Bob Vought, a retired auto parts warehouse manager in St. Petersburg, Florida. He said he strongly disapproves of Biden’s handling of the economy.
Vought, who lives off her Social Security benefits, said inflation is taking a toll on her personal finances.
The Biden administration oversaw two of the largest cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security in decades, with a 5.9 percent increase that took effect in 2022 and an 8.7 percent increase in 2023. But Vought said that’s not enough to keep up with rising rent at the trailer park where she lives with her father and rising costs of food and other necessities.
Vought, an independent who typically votes Republican but voted for Biden in 2020, said he has also been frustrated by the “out of control” increase in illegal migrant crossings at the US southern border.
In fiscal year 2022, which ended in September, agents detained immigrants a record 2.38 million times at the southern border.
The coronavirus restrictions implemented under President Donald Trump, known as Title 42, allowed border officials to turn away migrants to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The restrictions have recently ended.
Although Title 42 was used to deny asylum more than 2.8 million times, it carried no legal consequences, encouraging repeated attempts by migrants to enter the United States. Border Patrol agents returned to pre-pandemic immigration laws on May 11 that impose tougher penalties on migrants who enter the United States without permission than the emergency health order.
Despite his frustrations with Biden, Vought said he would likely vote for the Democrat again if Trump wins the Republican nomination.
“I agree with about half of Trump’s policies, but I think the guy is a liar and he’s so arrogant,” Vought said. “If those were the only two candidates … I’d still vote for Biden.”
John Billman, 79, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said Biden doesn’t have enough credit to pass the $1 trillion infrastructure bill and the $280 billion CHIPS Act meant to push history of US semiconductors or the historically low unemployment rate. The unemployment rate stands at 3.4%,
Billman, who approves of Biden’s performance, said he believes the political conversation has become even more toxic since the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
“Since Jan. 6, there are so many who seem incredibly angry with the government, who think the government and Biden are just doing bad things,” Billman said. “I mean an infrastructure bill? Is that a bad thing? I have family members that I love and I love and they’re smart people who say, ‘I hate Biden.’ I can understand disagreeing with him, but how can you hate Biden?” It’s scary.”
Biden is underperforming on the economy even among Democrats: 61% approve of him on the issue, compared to 75% for his job overall. Democrats feel even harsher about the current state of the nation’s economy, though they remain more likely than Republicans to say the country is headed in the right direction (36% vs. 7%) or to value the economy as good (41). % vs. 7%).
Some Democratic respondents who approve of the president’s performance said they were baffled by life in post-pandemic America and what often seems like a complete abandonment of bipartisanship in Washington.
Karen D’Andrea, 64, a Democrat from Port Lucie, Fla., was among the millions of Americans who lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic. She was able to land a new job at a tech startup, but was recently laid off as the industry is going through one of the biggest cost-cutting since the Great Recession.
“I think people with the same mindset as me feel that our best days are behind us,” said D’Andrea, who approves of Biden’s performance but believes the country is moving in the wrong direction. “Republicans like to say they want to make America great again. I think things can be wonderful now, but we have to work together.”
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The survey of 1,680 adults was conducted May 11-15 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
