Biden Claims Economy Today Is Stronger Than Before Pandemic

Even after recent polls have shown that the president’s unfavorability ratings in regards to the economy are lower than President Jimmy Carter’s near the same time of his first term, Joe Biden claims that the economy is stronger today than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a virtual meeting on Wednesday with the “Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force,” Biden discussed the “progress” the economy has made since he took office. “Today, America is the only leading economy in the world where household incomes and the economy as a whole are stronger than they were before the pandemic, even accounting for price increases,” he said. 

Biden even quoted an anonymous analyst who said that 2021 was the “strongest first-year economic track record of any President in the last 50 years.”

He then went on to complain about the economy he was given when sworn into office. “The economy I inherited nearly a year ago wasn’t just in crisis; it wasn’t working for working people,” the president stated. “And I told you that’s the reason I ran. It’s about time the middle class and working-class people got a shot.”

Yet, the middle- and working-class people Biden says he ran for seem to be unsatisfied with the president’s job on the economy so far. As reported by The Daily Wire, a poll released Monday by CNN showed that Biden’s economic approval rating is worse than President Jimmy Carter’s rating close to the same time of his presidency. 

“Carter’s economic net approval rating of -8 points in an early January 1978 CBS News/New York Times poll was the lowest around this point in a presidency before Biden’s -13 points,” CNN reported. “The economy, and particularly inflation, was listed as the nation’s top problem in a late October 1977 Gallup poll.”

CNN explained that inflation appears to be the biggest issue for Biden with just 28% of Americans approving of how he’s handling the issue. A December Fox News poll found that inflation was a top concern for voters. The poll also showed that:

Two-thirds think Biden’s leadership is at least somewhat responsible for inflation — and about the same number blame regular economic cycles. Larger and roughly equivalent majorities blame the pandemic, government spending and regulations, and company price gouging. 

Rising prices over the last six months have caused financial hardship for two-thirds of voters. That climbs to three-quarters among those living in lower-income households. 

By more than two-to-one, people say the president’s economic policies have hurt rather than helped them personally. That’s largely driven by almost two-thirds of Republicans saying they’ve been hurt — nearly five times the number of Democrats who say the same. For comparison, one-third of Democrats said they had been hurt by former President Donald Trump’s economic policies in a December 2018 Fox News survey.

Just 1 in 6 voters say they are better off financially than they were a year ago, and a majority rates their personal financial situation negatively. That’s a reversal since August, when over half said their finances were in positive shape.

The president, however, seems to be ignoring the latest polls on the economy and his handling of it. He credited his infrastructure plan for starting “to build an economy from the bottom up and middle out.” 

“And we’re making progress,” he continued. “We got a way to go. We’re making progress.”

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