President Joe Biden has spent months promoting his economic agenda, with an emphasis on job creation in the manufacturing sector and the continued strength of the labor market. But his dismal approval ratings suggest that his message isn’t getting through, and a new poll suggests one major reason why: Voters want to see lower prices throughout the economy more than anything else, indicating that inflation is still a serious problem, both politically and economically.
A YouGov survey sponsored by the Democratic strategy group Blueprint found that the top priority for registered voters is “lower prices on goods, services, and gas.” Sixty-four percent of those asked what they would most like to see improved in the economy chose that option, handily beating higher wages (20%), lower interest rates (9%) and more jobs (7%).
The survey of 1,063 registered voters, taken from October 26 to November 2, also contains bad news for Biden as he prepares to face off against Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. Nearly half (49%) of respondents gave Trump credit for focusing most on lower prices, while just 24% said Biden is primarily focused on lower prices. And a majority (56%) of respondents said they thought Biden’s policies were “bad” for lower prices on goods and services, while only 44% said they were “good.”
Americans also don’t seem to believe some of the positive economic developments that have occurred since Biden took office. A majority of respondents said they did not believe a number of factual statements, including that the U.S. economy grew by 6% in 2021 and 2% in 2022 (53% did not believe), inflation-adjusted income has risen 3.5% since 2021 (54%), gas prices fell by more than $1 a gallon from June 2022 to June 2023 (55%), and inflation has fallen from 8.3% to 3.2% since 2021 (62%).
The bottom line: Biden’s current economic message isn’t working. But the thing Americans want most – a reduction in prices – is unlikely, according to most experts, which means Democrats need to focus somewhere else if they want to convince voters that Biden deserves another term in the White House.
