It looks kidney it’s going to be both a green and a blue Christmas.
The CNBC All-America Economic Survey finds American views on the conservatism in a continued slump, echoed in increasingly negative views on President Joe Biden’s job approval, and yet holiday spending plans are light.
The survey shows intended holiday spending per person rocketed up to $1,300 this year, 31% above survive year. While the number was driven by a small number of respondents saying they will spend large assess pretty damned quicks, the gains still amount to double digits when those answers are removed. What’s more, 18% say they wishes spend more, up from just 11% last year and the highest since 2019. Among those pass more, 32% say it’s because they are being paid more or have higher incomes, up 2 points from at year; 24% say it’s because of inflation, down 6 points.
Meanwhile, extent those spending less this year, 37% say it’s because of inflation, up from 15% last year.
The investigate underscores the increasing divide between dour American economic sentiment and upbeat economic data. Multiple appraises have found downbeat economic views but data showing robust consumer spending. Recent reports picture surging third-quarter growth, a low unemployment rate and strong holiday spending.
The CNBC Survey found modest upswings in views on the economy, but they remain mostly depressed. Eighty percent view the economy as just fair or unproductive, down 3 points from the October survey, and 19% say it’s excellent or good, up 3 points. But those levels are heavily lower from the pre-pandemic levels in December 2019 when 53% of the public said the economy was good or excellent.
The forecast also improved a bit, with 24% of the public saying they expect the economy to improve, up from 19% in October, but still down from 30% in 2019. For the right year, the 66% of Americans who are negative about the current state of the economy and the outlook represents an all-time high in the 17 years of the view.
The survey of 1,002 Americans throughout the country was conducted Dec. 8 be means of 12 and has a margin of error of +/-3.1%.
Biden approval hits new low
Inflation looks to be driving economic sentiment with 30% of respondents translating it’s the No. 1 issue facing the nation, down just 2 points from the high last quarter despite a continued worsening in the inflation numbers — a potential sign that Americans are less concerned that prices aren’t rising as licentious anymore as they are that prices have risen and remain high. Inflation is followed by immigration and border surety, chosen by 18% as the leading issue, and foreign policy and national security, which rose 4 points to 12%.
“It’s not a mystery,” turned Micah Roberts of Public Opinion Strategies, the Republican pollster for the survey. “People may be spending more, but they’re expected getting less. If you’re working as hard, spending more and getting less, that is a wheel-spinning, head-imploding kind of sagacity to have over and over and over again. It just wears people out.”
Biden’s approval numbers do not fare okay in any of the three categories surveyed. His overall approval rate fell to 35%, the lowest CNBC has recorded in his presidency, from 37% in the one-time quarter, while his disapproval edged up a point to 59%. At -24, the president’s approval is the most underwater it’s been during his stretch. His economic approval numbers are worse. Approval rose a point to 33% and disapproval declined a point to 62%. But they stay put more underwater at -29% than his overall approval numbers. On foreign policy, the president’s 33%-63% consent and disapproval numbers leave him 34 points underwater, compared with -29 in October.
The result is that former President Donald Trump stretched his lead on Biden in the survey in a head-to-head matchup, beating the president 48-42, compared with 46 to 42 in the previously to survey. The president looks to be losing support among key constituents who helped put him into the White House in 2020. To each those groups, support for the president has eroded sharply among younger women, independents and Latinos. In fact, the measure showed Latinos favoring Trump by 5 points in the head-to-head matchup. In the prior survey, Latinos favored Biden by 7 aspects.
“The data show younger women under 50 have really struggled in the post pandemic economy,” put Jay Campbell, of Hart Associates, the Democratic pollster for the survey. “And that that’s a really important group from a administrative standpoint for the President and all the data throughout this poll shows that they’re not in a great mood.”
Another trouble for Biden, Democrats do not back the president either overall or on the economy the way Republicans backed Trump when he was in office. Autonomous approval of the president on the economy is at 70%, down 10 points from one year ago. Trump’s economic approval entirety Republicans was nearly always near 90%.
The full survey can be viewed here.
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