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Less Than A Quarter Of Democrats Say They Are Better Off Financially Under Biden: POLL

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Will Kessler Contributor
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American voters, including a large number of Democrats, are unenthusiastic about their financial situation under President Joe Biden following sky-high inflation raising prices, according to the Financial Times.

Only 18% of Democrats said that they have become somewhat better off financially since Biden took office in January 2021, while only 6% said they are much better off, according to a poll conducted by the FT and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business on registered voters. Of all voters, only 14% believed they were better off financially than they were before Biden took office. (RELATED: There’s A Big Warning Sign That Commercial Real Estate Is In Trouble)

“Every group — Democrats, Republicans and independents — list rising prices as by far the biggest economic threat… and the biggest source of financial stress,” Erik Gordon, a professor at Michigan’s Ross School, told the FT. “That is bad news for Biden, and the more so considering how little he can do to reverse the perception of prices before election day.”

The biggest financial issue for all Americans was price increases, with 82% pegging it as their top stressor and around 75% believing that rising prices is the greatest threat facing the U.S. economy in the coming six months, according to the FT.

Inflation peaked under Biden at 9.1% in June 2022 and has decelerated since, coming down to 3.7% for August and September, but remains elevated far above the Fed’s 2% target. Many economists have linked the rise in inflation to the president’s high spending initiatives, like the American Rescue Plan, which added $1.9 trillion in new stimulus spending, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which added $750 billion.

High inflation led to 65% of respondents saying they have had to reduce their expenditure on non-essentials like vacations or eating away from home, while 52% noted that they had to cut back on spending for necessities like food, according to the FT.

Many Americans have turned to debt to pay for their everyday expenses, resulting in credit card debt reaching an aggregate all-time high of $1.08 trillion in the third quarter of 2023. Borrowers are also increasingly unable to pay for their debts, resulting in a rapid rise in delinquencies, particularly for credit cards and auto loans.

Only half of Democrats thought that Biden’s policies had helped the economy to some degree, while just over a quarter of American voters thought so, according to the FT. Just under half of those surveyed said that the president’s policies have hurt the economy to some degree.

Biden scores worse than former President Trump in the same poll conducted four years ago, with respondents being pessimistic under the former president but less negative than under Biden, according to the FT.

The poll was conducted between Nov. 2 and 7 on 1,004 registered voters across the country and has a margin of error of ±3.1%.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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