The poll found that 62 percent of Americans think Biden has done “not much” or “a little or Nothing during their presidency, while 36 percent say they’ve made a “very large” or “good amount.” On many of Biden’s signature initiatives — from improving the nation’s infrastructure to making electric vehicles more affordable to creating jobs — a majority of Americans say they don’t believe he’s made progress. .
The dynamic debate raises the stakes for Biden’s prime-time speech on Tuesday. The president is expected to use the platform to tout his accomplishments and remind voters that many of the laws he signed during the first half of his term are still in effect. are being implemented.
That’s the message he has delivered ahead of the midterm elections, when his party’s better-than-expected performance convinced many aides that, despite his low approval rating, Americans are largely Support his agenda. Biden has said one of his main goals for this year is to make sure Americans feel the impact of the laws he signed during his first two years in office, including the $1.2 trillion The infrastructure bill, legislation aimed at combating climate change, is a $52 billion effort. To promote domestic manufacturing and a cap on the cost of insulin for the elderly.
“It’s one thing to go through all of this — now we have to make sure we’re on it every single day. No joke,” Biden said in a Jan. 26 speech on the economy. “Implementing it so people can see what we’ve delivered and give it to them directly.”
Overall, the poll results are not satisfactory for either side. On the escalating fight over the debt ceiling, most Americans are closer to Biden’s position than the GOP’s, and most Republicans reject political plans to investigate the administration’s “weaponization.”
And Americans have little faith in Biden or House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to make the right decisions for the country’s future. Just under 2 in 10 Americans trust the speaker “very much” or “very much” to do so. 71 percent have “only some” or no confidence. A similarly high 72 percent say they lack such confidence in congressional Republicans, and 68 percent say the same about Biden and 70 percent about congressional Democrats.
But Biden is the one who will make his case to the American people on Tuesday. And many of them say he still hasn’t made much progress on key issues.
While 77 percent of Democrats say Biden has raised at least a good amount of money, that number drops to 32 percent of political independents. Only seven percent of Republicans say he has accomplished a lot, while 93 percent say he has accomplished not much, very little, or nothing.
Doubts abound about Biden’s achievements. Those were for former President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2012. As Obama sought re-election, 52 percent of adults said they gained “not much” or “little or nothing” on both points. In a potentially ominous sign for the White House, Biden’s numbers are roughly the same as the negative rating of former President Donald Trump, who lost his re-election bid.
Biden has said the Obama administration did not do enough to reverse all of its legislative victories in the wake of the Great Recession, and he has vowed not to repeat that mistake.
The president recently said he has created an “implementation cabinet” of top officials “whose job is not just to do anything but to tell people what we’ve already done.”
But many of the laws passed in 2022 won’t be fully implemented for months or years, and challenges facing consumers today — such as inflation and broader economic uncertainty — make it difficult for White to take credit for his achievements. House stress can be complicated.
Just under a third of Americans (32 percent) think Biden has made progress in improving roads and bridges in his community, while 60 percent say he has not. Biden is visiting events that mark the start of projects funded by his infrastructure bill, such as a $1.6 billion bridge connecting Ohio and Kentucky and tunnel projects in Baltimore and New York.
Three in 10 Americans say Biden has made progress in reducing prescription drug costs, while 47 percent say he has not and 23 percent are unsure. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes several provisions aimed at lowering drug costs for Medicare recipients, although the $35 cap on monthly insulin costs only went into effect last month and other changes will take years to effect. Cannot be felt. Among seniors 65 and older, more than 42 percent say Biden has lowered drug prices.
Asked if Biden has made progress on improving the affordability of electric vehicles, 26 percent of Americans say he has, 56 percent say he has not, and 18 percent have no opinion. do not have. Extended tax credits authorized by the Inflation Act became available to car buyers in January.
Perhaps most troubling for the White House, nearly a third of adults say Biden has made progress that has created more good jobs in their community, while 60 percent say they have not. Biden has overseen the fastest pace of job growth in U.S. history, with unemployment not seen in decades.
The president received more good news on Friday, with the release of new data showing that the labor market added 517,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4 percent, the lowest level since May 1969. “I’m happy to report that the state of the state and our economy are strong,” Biden said after the numbers were released.
Yet a growing number of Americans say their own finances are worsening on Biden’s watch. Nearly 4 in 10 Americans (41 percent) say they are not as well off financially since Biden became president, up from 35 percent a year ago and up from 35 percent since the measure began. The polls have the highest percentage reporting such sentiments under any president. In 1986
Republicans have seized on this sense of economic gloom, hammering Biden on high prices, pointing to high-profile layoffs in the technology sector and blaming Biden’s spending on Covid relief for the high prices.
That has sparked a battle over raising the federal debt ceiling, which sets a legal maximum for how much the U.S. government can borrow. The United States has already hit the current $31.4 trillion threshold, and a series of “extraordinary measures” by the Treasury Department to avoid default could end by June.
When asked how worried they are that a default on the government’s debt would seriously hurt the economy, nearly 8 in 10 Americans say They are “Very” or “somewhat” anxious. It spanned party lines with a majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents all “very concerned” about the impact of a potential default.
In a sentiment that could bolster Biden, nearly two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) say debt repayment and federal spending should be handled separately, while 26 percent say Congress should pay the government its own debt. should be allowed to be repaid only if the administration agrees to cut the federal debt. The White House has said the debt ceiling should be raised unconditionally, to pay for spending that has already been approved and to avoid a catastrophic default.
There is a growing divide among party members over how the country is handling the war in Ukraine, reflecting growing uneasiness over rising spending with Biden’s pledge to continue supporting Ukrainians. As long as it takes.”
Nearly a year after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, 50 percent of Republicans say the U.S. is doing “too much” to support Ukraine, up from 18 percent last April. By contrast, a 58 percent majority of Democrats say the U.S. is doing “just the right amount” and 22 percent say it’s doing too little. Among independents, 40 percent say the country is doing about the right amount, 21 percent say it is doing too little and 33 percent say it is doing too much.
Overall, 40 percent of Americans say the U.S. is doing the right amount to help, and 19 percent say it is doing too little. But the part that says the country is doing “too much” has more than doubled from 14 percent last April to 33 percent today.
McCarthy, who will sit behind Biden during his speech on Tuesday, preserved his speakership and vowed that House Republicans would form a subcommittee to investigate allegations that federal agencies are being used by conservatives. A “weapon” is built against. A subsequent ABC poll found that 28 percent of Americans believe federal government agencies are biased against conservatives, while 11 percent believe they are biased against liberals and a whopping 42 percent say That they are not biased in any way.
Asked about the upcoming inquiry by congressional Republicans, 36 percent of Americans say it is “a legitimate investigation” while 56 percent say it is “just an attempt to score political points.”
Biden is likely to use his speech to touch on a spate of mass shootings during his presidency, including several massacres last month. He may reiterate his call for a new ban on the sale of assault weapons, which appears to be losing public support. Participation The number of Americans who support an assault weapons ban fell from 56 percent to 47 percent in 2019, one of the lowest polling levels in three decades.
The post-ABC poll was conducted among a random national sample of 1,003 adults from January 27 to February 1, 2023, and is within the full sample plus or minus 3.5 percentage points of sampling error and error between subgroups. There is a large margin. .
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