New WSJ Survey Shows Biden Continues to Face Criticism despite Inflation Easing

Despite an 8-point uptick among all voters who say the economy has improved since April, 60% disapprove of how President Joe Biden has handled the economy, according to a poll published Monday by The Wall Street Journal.

Specifically, 63% of the overall voters do not approve of how Biden has handled inflation, per the survey.

Biden continues to take flak for inflation — even as it has dramatically slowed — but isn’t getting credit for the overall rosier outlook of the economy, the survey found. 

“They can go out and talk about this stuff all they want, these voters aren’t hearing it, or they’re not believing it,” said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican strategist who conducted the survey with Democrat pollster Michael Bocian.

“They are certainly not buying it,” Fabrizio told the Journal, referring to “Bidenomics.”

Inflation dropped to 3.2% in July after peaking at 9.1% in June 2022 and employers have added an average of 236,000 jobs every month in 2023, the WSJ reported.

According to the survey, 23% of all voters think the economy is moving in the right direction compared to 15% in April. Three in five of all voters surveyed, however, disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.

That could be attributed to the sharp rise in inflation to begin with under Biden, stemming from the $1.9 trillion COVID-spurred stimulus package that he powered through Congress that hosts of economists outside of the White House predicted would lead to rocketing inflation.

“There’s been some uptick in voters’ feelings about the economy, but they still feel negatively about the strength of the economy and the direction,” Bocian told the WSJ. “There’s still this angst.” 

Among Democrat and Independent voters surveyed, there is a 9-point increase that the economy is in excellent or good condition since December, per the poll; 8% of Republicans polled say the same, unchanged since December.

The WSJ poll, conducted Aug. 24-30 among 1,500 registered voters, has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.