OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden just got another round of horrible news.
A brand new Ipsos poll found that just 39 percent of respondents approved of the job Biden is doing as president. Only 9 percent said they believe the country is heading in the right direction under Biden and Democratic leadership, with a whopping 74 percent saying America is on the wrong track.
Meanwhile, 54 percent disapprove of Biden’s job performance and just 25 percent of Independents say they approve of Biden’s performance. Americans are feeling the pain, economically, without question.
“We’re your typical middle-income average American family,” mother and wife Briana Howard told the New York Post. “We’re more mindful at the grocery store … It’s like, ‘What do we have a coupon for?’ I mindlessly picked up a pack of $10 grapes, that’s not something I can continue to do.”
“Diners have become my luxuries,” attorney Rob Abiuso also told the outlet. “There really is no surplus income anymore. There really is no savings anymore. I pray that all this turns around.”
“People have told me I lost weight, but I can’t afford groceries,” comedian Gary DeNoia said. “I used to go shopping and plan my meals for the week. But [now] a Fage yogurt is $10. A bag of Doritos is $7. It’s cheaper to eat takeout … I have never eaten this much Chinese takeout because the lunch special will last me three days.”
Making matters worse, the U.S. Department of Labor said that consumer prices continued to soar in September as price pressure remains hot throughout the economy.
Fox Business reported:
The Labor Department said Thursday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods including gasoline, groceries, and rents, rose 0.4% in September from the previous month. Prices climbed 8.2% on an annual basis.
Those figures were both higher than the 8.1% headline figure and 0.2% monthly increase forecast by Refinitiv economists, a worrisome sign for the Federal Reserve as it seeks to cool price gains and tame consumer demand with an aggressive interest rate hike campaign.
In an even more concerning development that suggests underlying inflationary pressures in the economy remain strong, core prices – which strip out the more volatile measurements of food and energy – climbed 0.6% in September from the previous month. From the previous year, core prices jumped 6.6%, the fastest since 1982.
A separate poll found that a majority of Americans are fed up with high prices and disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy overall.
Below are some of the topline findings from the AP-NORC poll:
–Some 46% of people now call their personal financial situation poor, up from 37% in March, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s a notable downturn at a particularly inopportune moment for Biden, given that the share of Americans who felt positive about their finances had stayed rock steady over the last few years — even during the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic.
–Overall, 54% say their finances are good in the latest survey. That figure was at least 62% through the global recession caused by the pandemic in 2020, and even in late 2021 and early 2022 as prices began to rise across the country.
–Forty-three percent say they approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, while 25% say the country is headed in the right direction. Biden’s approval rating had dropped as low as 36% in a July AP-NORC poll, and the percentage saying the country is headed in the right direction dropped as low as 14% in June.
–The drop in financial well-being was especially acute among Americans in households making less than $50,000 a year, just 33% of whom now call their personal finances good compared with 50% in March. Sixty-one percent of those in a household making between $50,000 and $100,000 call their personal finances good, as do 75% of those making more than that — both down only slightly since earlier in the year.
–Only 36% say they approve and 63% disapprove. But Americans aren’t heaping all the blame for inflation at Biden’s feet: 55% say higher-than-usual prices are mostly because of factors outside Biden’s control, while 44% say that’s happening mostly because of Biden’s policies.