A new poll shows President Joe Biden starting the new year with his worst polling yet, especially on his ability to handle the economy.
The data, pulled by CNBC and Change Research from 1,895 respondents between Dec. 17 and Dec. 20, showed 56% disapproving of the president, his worst showing in CNBC’s polls, and just 44% approving. CNBC found that 54% and 49% disapproved of Biden in September and April respectively.
Economic policy was ranked the top priority for men, women, every age demographic, Latino and white voters, and those surveyed both with and without college educations. Black respondents said the economy was their second-highest priority, behind combating racism, and looking at all respondents, 60% said they disapproved of Biden’s handling of economic issues, down 6 percentage points since September. Furthermore, 72% said they disapproved of Biden’s efforts to combat rising prices and inflation, and 38% blamed the president himself for price increases, compared to 26% who blamed the coronavirus pandemic and 23% who blamed corporations.
U.S. stocks rallied in 2021, with the S&P 500 closing the year up nearly 30% at a new, all-time high and both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite posting double-digit gains in 2021. More than half of likely 2022 voters responded that stocks were doing “good” or “excellent.” But just 44% approved of Biden’s handling of the markets, with 56% disapproving.
Despite Biden’s negative polling on the issue, and some new projections that show slowed or even reversed growth in early 2022, the White House remains adamant that Biden’s winter coronavirus plan will stop the omicron variant from erasing the past year’s economic progress.
“We’re not going to lock down,” one senior White House correspondent previously told the Washington Examiner. “That’s the big message that [Biden] continues to convey.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, claims that though omicron cases are rapidly rising in the United States, the lower severity level of these new cases should provide some economic insulation.
“In the United States, we are getting [an] accumulation of data. The spike in cases is out of proportion to the increase in hospitalization,” he said at a White House COVID-19 press briefing last week. “We must remember that hospitalizations and deaths are lagging indicators. However, the pattern and disparity between cases and hospitalization strongly suggest that there will be a lower hospitalization-to-case ratio when the situation becomes more clear.”
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“Early indications that we’ve seen from other countries like South Africa and United Kingdom of milder disease from Omicron, especially among the vaccinated and the boosted,” said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky during the same briefing.
