President Biden’s approval rating is at one of the lowest points of his White House tenure.
A national NBC News poll released over the weekend found that 39% of Americans support Mr. Biden’s job in the White House, compared with 56% who disapprove. The result is a new low in the survey for Mr. Biden, who has been in office less than 18 months.
“It is a flashing red light when you see a number like this,” said Bill McInturff, who helped conduct the survey. “Americans are telling us this is as bad as 2008.”
Overall, 75% of those polled said that the country is headed in the wrong direction — the fourth straight NBC News poll where the number has been above 70%.
The results indicate a steady decline in Mr. Biden’s popularity across the board. The president’s job approval was initially as high as 62%, according to a CBS/YouGov poll in March 2021.
Since then, he has lost ground among all political groups, accounting a decline of more than 20 percentage points in job approval over the past year.
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Mr. Biden’s low approval rating is driven largely by voters’ economic anxiety in the face of skyrocketing inflation. Only 33% of those polled said they approved of Mr. Biden’s stewardship of fiscal matters.
The poll comes only days after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation had jumped 8.3% over the past 12 months, marking a 40-year high.
White House officials have tried to downplay the significance of the inflation report. Last week, Mr. Biden blamed rising costs on GOP lawmakers and Russia.
The president, in particular, said that although Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine had upended the global economy and driven up energy prices, Republicans were doing little to help lower costs.
“Some parts of my plan I’ve been able to get done on my own,” Mr. Biden said. “Some parts have been held up by Congress. What’s the congressional Republican plan? They don’t want to solve inflation by lowering your costs.”
Economists contend, though, that Mr. Biden’s big-spending policies are to blame for inflation. They say that the White House’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, signed into law in 2021, flooded the economy with excess money when the nation was facing a supply chain crisis.
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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