By JOSH BOAK and EMILY SWANSON
June 30, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — An overwhelming and growing majority of
Americans say the U.S. is heading in the wrong direction, including nearly 8 in
10 Democrats, according to a new poll that finds deep pessimism about the
economy plaguing President Joe Biden.
Eighty-five percent of U.S. adults say the country is on the
wrong track, and 79% describe the economy as poor, according to a new survey
from The Associated
Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The findings suggest Biden
faces fundamental challenges as he tries to motivate voters to cast ballots for
Democrats in November’s
midterm elections.
Inflation has
consistently eclipsed the
healthy 3.6% unemployment rate as a focal point for Americans, who are
dealing with high
gasoline and food prices. Even among Democrats, 67% call economic
conditions poor.
“He’s doing the best he can — I can’t say he’s doing a good
job,” said Chuck McClain, 74. “But his opposition is so bad. I just don’t feel
the Democratic Congress is doing enough.”
The Las Vegas resident is a loyal Democrat who said he
doesn’t miss an election, but he said the price of gas and groceries, Russia’s war in Ukraine and
the country’s deep political divides have led more Americans to feel as though
Washington is unresponsive to their needs.
“My wife and I are very frustrated with where the country is
headed, and we don’t have a lot of hope for the political end of it to get any
better,” he said.
The poll shows only 39% of Americans approve of Biden’s
leadership overall, while 60% disapprove. His approval rating fell to its
lowest point of his presidency last month and remains at that level. The
Democratic president gets hit even harder on the economy, with 69% saying they
disapprove of him on the issue. Among Democrats, 43% disapprove of Biden’s
handling of the economy.
Just 14% say things are going in the right direction, down
slightly from 21% in May and 29% in April. Through the first half of 2021,
about half of Americans said the country was headed in the right direction, a
number that has steadily eroded in the past year.
Dorothy Vaudo, 66, said she voted
for Biden in 2020 but plans to switch allegiance this year.
“I’m a Democrat so I had to vote Democrat, but that’s going
to change,” said the Martin County, North Carolina resident.
In recent weeks, Americans have endured even more bad
economic news, with inflation continuing to rise, interest
rates increasing dramatically and the
S&P 500 entering a bear market as many serious economists predict
a recession. Yet consumer
spending has largely kept pace and hiring remains brisk in a sign that
families and businesses have been able to withstand some of the economic pain.
In an
interview this month with the AP, Biden traced the decline in his
popularity to increases in gas prices that began a year ago. He said that
prices shot up further with Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine in February. But he rejected claims by Republican
lawmakers and some major economists that his
$1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package from last year contributed to
inflation, noting that price increases were a global phenomenon.
“We’re in a stronger position than any nation in the world
to overcome this inflation,” Biden said. “If it’s my fault, why is it the case
in every other major industrial country in the world that inflation is higher?”
Douglass Gavilan, a 26-year-old in Miami, is concerned about
the “skyrocketing” prices and rent that he sees in his community. Shelter costs
are roughly a third of the U.S. consumer price index, so the
run-up in rents and home
values has started to strain the budgets even of many people living
where there are strong job opportunities.
“I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to live here in a
few years,” Gavilan said. “I definitely don’t feel confident in the economy.”
Though he doesn’t identify with a political party, Gavilan
voted for Biden in 2020. He doesn’t think Biden has proposed anything to make a
meaningful difference in his life, but he does think the president’s in a tough
spot.
“There’s very little he can do without everyone blaming him
for everything,” Gavilan said.
The poll was conducted from Thursday to Monday, with many
interviews conducted after the
Supreme Court on Friday struck down Roe v. Wade and allowed states to
ban abortion -- a decision opposed
by a majority of the American people in
earlier polls, which could also have contributed to the continued slump in
the national mood.
The national dissatisfaction is bipartisan, the poll shows.
Ninety-two percent of Republicans and 78% of Democrats say the country is
headed in the wrong direction. Since last month, the percentage of Democrats
saying the country is headed in the wrong direction rose from 66%.
Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic remains
a relative bright spot, with 53% of Americans saying they approve of his
handling of that issue. On the other hand, only 36% say they approve of Biden’s
handling of gun policy; 62% disapprove.
But the economy is what weighs on many Americans as their
top priority.
Curtis Musser, 57, a chemistry teacher from Clermont,
Florida, said he expects a recession is coming, though he believes it will be
mild.
Musser said many Americans simply feel as though they’re at
the mercy of events beyond their control, whether that’s the pandemic, rate
hikes by the Federal Reserve, war in Europe or political hostilities within the
U.S.
“I feel as an individual somewhat helpless,” he said. “I
don’t have control of the markets, and you can’t really guess what markets are
going do because you don’t know what the Fed is going to do. You don’t know
what Congress is going to do. You don’t know what Vladimir Putin is going to
do.”
___
The poll of 1,053 adults was conducted June 23-27 using a
sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed
to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for
all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
___
AP writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report.
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