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A majority of U.S. adults feel Biden has not accomplished much: Poll
Just 36 percent of U.S. adults think President Biden has accomplished a "great deal" or "a good amount" since taking office, a new poll from The Washington Post and ABC News has found. Sixty-two percent of Americans think the president has accomplished "not very much" or "little to nothing."
The less-than-deal results come as Biden prepares to deliver his 2023 State of the Union address, at which he will highlight his administration's achievements thus far, including the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the bipartisan gun safety package. When asked in both 2010 and 2012, 52 percent of adults felt that former President Barack Obama had accomplished "not much" or "little to nothing" during his first term. Former President Donald Trump's ratings were roughly the same as Biden's.
Unsurprisingly, Americans' perception of progress shifts on a partisan basis; 77 percent of Democrats believe Biden has accomplished a great or good amount, while 93 percent of Republicans think he has accomplished not much or little to nothing.
Perhaps some, if not all, of the dissonance between the White House and U.S. voters is due to the fact that "many of the laws [Biden] signed during the first half of his term are just now being implemented, the Post writes. To help with this, the president has created an "implementation cabinet" of administration officials "whose job is to just do nothing but let people know what we have already done," he said recently.
Still, the Post continues, "many of the laws passed in 2022 will not be fully implemented for months or years, and challenges facing consumers today — such as lingering inflation and broader economic uncertainty — could complicate the White House push to get credit for its achievements."
The poll also found that a clear majority of voters have "just some" or no confidence in Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was in January elected speaker of the House following a historic 15 votes.
The Washington Post and ABC News surveyed 1,003 adults between Jan. 27-Feb. 1, 2023. Among the full sample, results have a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.