Biden Gets Little Economic Credit

West Long Branch, NJ – President Joe Biden gets mediocre to poor marks on key aspects of the economy despite him recently touting what he calls “Bidenomics.” Only 3 in 10 Americans feel the country is doing a better job recovering economically than the rest of the world since the pandemic. The latest Monmouth (“Mon-muth”) University Poll also finds Congress and nearly all of its leadership continue to earn negative ratings.

Biden earns a split decision on his handling of jobs and unemployment (47% approve and 48% disapprove). He gets a net negative rating for his handling of transportation and energy infrastructure (43% approve and 51% disapprove) and an even worse rating for his handling of inflation (34% approve and 62% disapprove). More than 7 in 10 Democrats give the president positive marks on these policy areas and more than 8 in 10 Republicans rate him negatively. Approval among independents stands at 41% for jobs and unemployment, 37% for transportation and energy infrastructure, and just 26% for inflation. These results are similar to Biden’s ratings for these three policy areas in a Monmouth poll taken last September.

“The president has been touting ‘Bidenomics,’ but the needle of public opinion has not really moved. Americans are just not giving him a lot of credit when it comes to the economy,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Some indicators suggest the U.S. economy has been recovering better than other countries from the worldwide instability and rising prices brought on by the Covid pandemic. However, just 30% of the American public believes that. In fact, 32% say the U.S. economy’s recovery from this situation is worse than other countries and another 33% say the U.S. recovery is about the same as the rest of the world.

The Monmouth University Poll finds Biden’s overall job performance rating currently stands at 44% approve and 52% disapprove. His approval number is three points higher than it has been over the past few months, but his overall rating is statistically in line with where it has been since last autumn. Just 25% of the public says the country is going in the right direction, while 68% say it is on the wrong track.

In other poll findings, Vice President Kamala Harris receives a job rating of 40% approve and 52% disapprove. These numbers have not moved much since Monmouth started polling the vice president’s job performance earlier this year. Opinion of the job the U.S. Congress is doing stands at 22% approve and 68% disapprove, which is basically in line with poll findings since last autumn.

The poll also asked about the performance of congressional leadership. Only House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries receives a net positive score from the American public (24% approve and 18% disapprove), but only 4 in 10 know enough about him to register an opinion. The other three top leaders are rated by 6 in 10 Americans, with Jeffries’ fellow Democrat in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (25% approve and 37% disapprove), and his Republican counterpart in the House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (23% approve and 39% disapprove), earning similar, albeit negative, ratings. McCarthy has become better known since taking the Speaker’s gavel in January, but his net rating is basically unchanged because both his approve and disapprove numbers have increased. The public’s lowest leader ratings are reserved for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (12% approve and 50% disapprove). As a whole, Democrats tend to be more positive about their party’s leadership than Republicans are about their own congressional leaders.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from July 12 to 17, 2023 with 910 adults in the United States.  The question results in this release have a margin of error of +/- 4.9 percentage points for the full sample. The poll was conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute in West Long Branch, NJ.

QUESTIONS AND RESULTS     

(* Some columns may not add to 100% due to rounding.)

[QUESTIONS 4 – 7 WERE ROTATED]

[Q11-34 held for future release.]

Methodology

The Monmouth University Poll was sponsored and conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute from July 12 to 17, 2023 with a probability-based national random sample of 910 adults age 18 and older. Interviews were conducted in English, and included 319 live landline telephone interviews, 480 live cell phone interviews, and 111 online surveys via a cell phone text invitation. Telephone numbers were selected through a mix of random digit dialing and list-based sampling. Landline respondents were selected with a modified Troldahl-Carter youngest adult household screen. Interviewing services were provided by Braun Research, with sample obtained from Dynata (RDD, n= 569), Aristotle (list, n= 136) and a panel of prior Monmouth poll participants (n= 205). Monmouth is responsible for all aspects of the survey design, data weighting and analysis. The full sample is weighted for region, age, education, gender and race based on US Census information (ACS 2021 one-year survey). For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling has a maximum margin of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points adjusted for sample design effects (1.52). Sampling error can be larger for sub-groups (see table below). In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

Click on pdf file link below for full methodology and crosstabs by key demographic groups.