Despite a multi-year campaign by the White House and its allies to convince the public that the economy is booming, the vast majority of Americans say they're worse off today than they were four years ago.
That's according to the latest I&I/TIPP poll of likely voters, which finds that 58% say they aren't better off than they were four years ago - before the COVID-19 pandemic - while only 34% say they are.
The I&I/TIPP Poll asked 1,464 Americans two questions related to the economy: "Comparing your situation today to what it was four years ago, are you better off now than you were four years ago?" and "How would you grade President Biden's performance handling the economy?" The poll, taken from Nov. 29-Dec. 1, has a margin of error of /-2.8 percentage points.
The question about whether people are better off than four years ago - famously asked by Ronald Reagan in 1980 before his landslide election over Jimmy Carter - is clearly weighing on minds at the White House.
In a memo sent earlier this month, Biden's National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard claimed that "American workers are finishing the year in a stronger position than before the pandemic - with wages and wealth up by more than inflation and strong employment thanks in part to the president's Bidenomics agenda." But almost nobody outside the White House believes this, and that includes demographic groups where Biden normally polls well.
Disapproval of Biden's handling of the economy is similarly deep and widespread. In fact, there was not a single demographic group where the majority rated his performance as "Good" or "Excellent" - that includes Democrats, only 47% of whom give Biden' an "A" or "B" grade.
The only concrete evidence they can point to is the fact that the official unemployment rate is currently 3.7% and the monthly inflation rate has come down from its nearly double-digit highs last year to 3.1%. Beyond that, Biden's own economic advisers have been reduced to saying that the economy didn't do as badly as some had expected this year.
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