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Poll on Inflation Spells Further Doom for Biden

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  December 13, 2023 4:00 PM

Earlier this week, we analyzed how a new poll from The Wall Street Journal does not look good for President Joe Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential election, which looks to be a rematch from 2020 between him and former President Donald Trump. It turns out it wasn't the only poll to show bad news. They've been coming steadily for weeks now, especially this week. In particular, Biden looks to be hurting over his handling of the economy and inflation, which Trump not only performed better on when it comes to approval polls when he was president, but also as polls ask who is better suited to handle the issue between Trump and Biden.

Inflation continues to look bad. "In November, the Consumer Price Index registered another 0.1 percent increase in the costs of goods and services paid by Americans for a 12-month increase of 3.1 percent," Spencer covered earlier on Wednesday.

On Sunday, CBS News released their poll with one such major takeaway being how much Americans are hurting when it comes to the economy. "CBS News poll finds Americans feel inflation's impact on living standards, opportunities," the headline for the CBS News write-up pointed out. 

Many of the poll's findings do not mention Biden by name, but that still doesn't bode well for the incumbent president.  He also is mentioned by name later in the write-up. 

One key part of the poll and the write-up is that "people say they pay more attention to personal experience than to these kinds of economic figures." Eighty-five percent say they pay attention to "your own experiences," while 66 percent say the same about "national data."

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Further, a whopping 76 percent say that their income is not keeping up with inflation, while just 24 percent say that it is. It's no wonder, then, that the poll shows Biden with just a 30 percent approval rating on inflation. RealClearPolitics (RCP) has him overall with a 33.4 percent approval rating on the issue, making it his worst issue among the issues that RCP tracks.

Does the president control inflation, though? A majority of the poll's respondents believe that he can, no matter how he and those in his administration have tried to escape blame. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has even blamed the Trump administration for inflation, despite how a GoBankingsRate piece noted that Trump's presidency saw the second lowest rate of inflation of the list of presidents going back to Lyndon B. Johnson--behind only President George W. Bush's 0.0 percent--and Biden's so far seen the third highest. 

As the poll's write-up noted, with original emphasis:

Most Americans do think a president can control inflation. 

For some context, in somewhat similar questions from the 1970s and 80's, many thought so then, too. Given the complexity of the world's economy — and that people do recognize multiple reasons for inflation — they may or may not be making accurate reads of the office's power. But either way, so long as inflation is high, that could be one reason President Biden continues to get poor marks on his handling of it.

There's a difference between now and then, though, when it comes to similar sentiments from the 1970s an 1980s. Today, 60 percent believe that the president can control inflation. The write-up mentions how a CBS/New York Times poll from June 1979 found that 45 percent of respondents said the same. While that's a significant number, slightly more said that the president could not, with 47 percent saying it was out of the president's control. Thus, inflation looks to be an even bigger problem for Biden today than it was for then President Jimmy Carter.

Inflation was regarded as the major issue of the day then was inflation, with 32 percent saying so. Today, it's still the highest, with 27 percent saying so. 

Biden has in many ways been compared to Carter, who went on to lose to President Ronald Reagan, with the 1980 election being considered quite the landslide. Perhaps that could happen here, too, though it's of course worth repeating that Republicans cannot let such polling go to their heads, especially close to 11 months away from the election.

It's not just inflation where majorities disapprove of his handling of economic matters. Fifty-five percent disapprove of how he's handled "jobs & unemployment," despite how the administration and reelection campaign continue to tout the numbers and even mislead about the amount of jobs created. Sixty-percent disapprove of his handling of the economy overall.

The poll was also discussed on Sunday's edition of "Face the Nation." CBS News Director of Elections and Surveys Anthony Salvanto pointed out that "prices are still high," and that people point to how "their income isn't keeping up with inflation," which he says is "that immediate pocketbook impact."

Salvanto also touched upon Americans' thoughts on how the White House has handled inflation, or more accurately hasn't. "There's a large sense that they think the president can control inflation. And, look, objectively, that may or may not be the case, but it kind of comes with the job, right? They're not certain, in fact, many aren't sure what exactly the White House has done about all of this. And so his handling of inflation, in particular, remains low," he said about Biden.

Another takeaway from that CBS News poll, covered in Tuesday's VIP piece, had to do with findings about Americans being more sympathetic towards Israelis or Palestinians, but also how Biden does not have a good approval rating on that issue either.

The poll was conducted December 6-8, 2023 with 2,144 Americans and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

How is the Biden reelection looking to respond? As discussed on CBS Mornings, they're looking to use a $25 million aid campaign to speak to what the president has supposedly done to "bring down prices and restore the economy." What the president has done is fire out posts from his official and political accounts about inflation and prices, which have been hit with context from Community Notes.

The campaign is going to need all the help possible, in those states included, especially given that Biden looks to be losing in multiple swing states, as multiple polls show.