Lauren Moye, FISM News
President Joe Biden has achieved a new all-time low in his job performance approval rating according to the latest Associated Press poll. The new data shows that only 39% of Americans approve of how Biden is handling key issues.
On the heels of a Quinnipiac poll showing the low approval ratings among Hispanics, the AP and NORC Center for Public Research study has more bad news for Biden – he’s also losing significant traction within his own party voting bloc. According to the same poll, a year ago Biden’s enjoyed a healthy 96% rating amongst Democrats, but that approval has steadily declined following both international and domestic setbacks. Friday’s statistics show that now only 73% of those within his party approve of the job he is doing.
Amongst Republicans, Biden has slipped from a 23% approval rate at the beginning of his presidency to a mere 5% in the most recent poll.
Biden has seen an overall 22% drop since he took office a little over a year ago, which could hurt those within his party as typically the president’s perception is often associated with his party as a whole during voting season.
The economy was shown as one of the leading causes of dissatisfaction amongst potential voters. The AP found that roughly, only 2 in 10 American adults believe the U.S. “is heading in the right direction.” Two-thirds of Americans don’t agree with the Biden administration’s response to economic concerns, and the AP reported that personal dissatisfaction is growing as only 18% of voters believe Biden has helped the economy more than he has hurt it.
This corresponds to a recent report that two-thirds of American families are now living paycheck to paycheck while inflation and food prices continue to rise. Biden and his officials have recently begun a media blitz to shift blame of the economic disaster onto both the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both excuses that are liable to backfire as Americans look at the outcome of Biden’s policies with a more critical eye.
“It’s a vicious cycle of price increases,” AP reported one citizen as saying about the result of Biden’s policies.
Meanwhile, placing sanctions on Russia to discourage their assault on Ukraine continues to trickle down to consumers, and it is a price that U.S. citizens are becoming less willing to pay. In a second AP-NORC poll, 51% of Americans say that the focus when dealing with Russia should be on limiting damage to the U.S. economy. Notably, 32% are now opposed to funding Ukraine’s defense.
Biden recently approved an additional $40 billion aid package to Ukraine with bipartisan support, but the amount has some evaluating the true cost it will have here at home.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Rand Paul said that while supporting Ukraine is a “noble cause,” by simply “shoveling money out the door” Congress is in essence instituting “a war on the American taxpayers.”