American Voters Don’t Trust Biden’s Economy Narrative

February 07, 2024

Party Politics Economy Inflation Mainstream Media

American Voters Don’t Trust Biden’s Economy Narrative image

Key Takeaways

The Biden administration's narrative about how jobs and the economy are going in 2024 are received with skepticism by the American people.
People are worried about job prospects especially for non-immigrant workers.
Discontent spans the partisan divide and voters dislike the perception that mainstream media supports the administrations narrative, despite different results in their everyday lives.

Our Methodology

Demographics

All Voters

Sample Size

2,000

Geographical Breakdown

National

Time Period

30 days

American voters have an unhappy view about the job market and general state of the economy. Conversations online boil down to two indicators:

Distrust in the economic reporting
How the government spends money

Americans remain skeptical about the job reports, with claims that half of the jobs are "fake" and the other half being government jobs. They also express concern about the lack of new jobs for native-born Americans since 2018. This sentiment could be indicative of wider concerns about unemployment, underemployment, and the overall health of the job market.

Online conversations support this a pattern of the top discussions:

Concerns about job security and employment prospects, especially for native-born Americans
Doubts about the accuracy and reliability of government-provided statistics
Belief in the recovery and stabilization of the labor market
General interest in economic matters, with specific focus on employment rates and the health of the job market
The broader context of political discourse, with jobs and the economy being key issues in political campaigns and policy-making

Bipartisan Disapproval

Democrats' comments seem to focus more on dissatisfaction with the current tax system, advocating for reform and suggesting that wealthy individuals and large corporations are not paying their fair share. They also express concerns about how tax money is being spent, particularly with regard to funding wars.

Republicans' comments reveal a similar dissatisfaction with the tax system, but from a different angle. They mention the burden of taxes on the middle class and business owners, and they express frustration with how tax money is spent. They also seem to be against high taxes and are more likely to suggest tax cuts or reforms that reduce taxes.

Independents' comments are a mix of the above. They express frustration with the complexity of the tax system, the perceived unfairness of the distribution of tax burdens, and the misuse of tax money. They also discuss the impact of taxes on various groups, including the homeless and the self-employed. Some Independents seem open to both tax hikes for the wealthy and tax cuts for middle-income earners and businesses.