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President Joe Biden is grappling with low approval ratings and high consumer costs as Democrats fight to keep their razor-thin majority in Congress
President Joe Biden said Monday that he’s presiding over the economy’s ‘most robust recovery’ in modern history – as gas prices reach more than double what they were when he took office for the second day in a row.
‘At the time I took office about 16 months ago, the economy had stalled and COVID was out of control,’ the president wrote on Twitter.
‘Today, thanks to the economic plan and the vaccination plan that my Administration put into action, America has achieved the most robust recovery in modern history.’
But Biden’s confidence isn’t shared by the majority of Americans, a new survey suggests – more than eight out of every 10 respondents said the economy was either ‘poor’ or ‘not so good.’
Thirty-five percent of people who participated in the Wall Street Journal-NORC Poll said they were not satisfied with their financial situation at all, which the Journal notes is the highest level recorded since the question was first asked half a century ago.
It comes as nationwide average gas prices reached yet another high on Monday, just surpassing $4.86 per gallon, according to the American Auto Association (AAA).
The average was roughly $2.39 per gallon the week of January 25, 2021 – days after Biden was inaugurated.
An economics expert told DailyMail.com that Biden’s comments show he’s ‘out of touch’ with how most Americans are feeling.
‘The president seems to be taking a lot of credit for what would have happened pretty much under any administration, because you we had a situation where the economy was essentially flipped off and then flipped on again, and there was going to be a very sharp recovery for the most part because it was such an unnatural type of recession,’ explained Patrick Hedger, executive director at Taxpayers Protection Alliance
‘But so, for him to say that Americans should feel more grateful, is really out of touch. Because the most basic things Americans need from gas to food are the prices are pretty out of control.’
Gas prices have continued to hit daily record highs for weeks and are now double what they were the week Biden took office, roughly $2.39
Gas prices more than doubled what they were when Biden took office on Sunday when they hit $4.85.
Asked about whether the White House has any new initiatives to help alleviate the burden, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that she does not ‘have anything to preview.’
But compounding that was inflation rising 8.3 percent in April, meaning Americans aren’t just feeling the financial strain at the gas pump.
They leveled off after months of consecutive records that peaked in March with an 8.5 percent increase, though the jump still remains a roughly 40-year high.
High gas prices caused by inflation – which Biden officials have attributed to the US’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic – were further exacerbated early this year when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended the global energy supply chain.
Democrats have also sought to crack down on oil and gas companies for price gouging and sitting on unused drilling leases in a bid to keep prices high.
But in parts of the country the average price for a gallon of gas is already above $6.
It’s been above that in California since last week – even nearing or exceeding $7 in some counties.
Meanwhile the president is touting the country’s ‘robust economic recovery,’ which one expert told DailyMail.com shows Biden is ‘out of touch’ with how Americans feel
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended the administration in a Sunday news television interview while again putting the heat on oil and gas companies.
‘When an oil company is deciding, hour by hour, how much to charge you for a gallon of gas, they’re not calling the administration to ask what they should do. They’re doing it based on their goal on maximizing their profits,’ Buttigieg said on ABC’s This Week.
He pointed out how little control the president himself has over the price of gas.
‘We know that the price of gasoline is not set by a dial in the Oval Office,’ he said.
Hedger said the Biden administration was ‘certainly’ sending conflicting messages by taking credit for the economy’s recovery while also pointing out it does not have control on gas prices.
Meanwhile a new poll contains bleak assessments about the state of the economy and people’s personal economic situations, even with unemployment at near record lows
‘It reveals the kind of pretzels they’re twisting themselves in, to not take ownership of the fact that, yeah, the White House can’t precisely set gas prices and they shouldn’t try to, but on day one – they cancelled cancelled a major oil and gas pipeline, the Keystone XL pipeline,’ the expert told DailyMail.com.
‘The oil market is simply responding to the signals being sent by the White House.’
A positive spot in Biden’s bleak economic forecast continues to be the jobs market, however, with unemployment hitting a near 50-year low of 3.6 percent in May.
But Americans’ dissatisfaction with the state of the economy could still bode badly for the president’s party as they fight to keep control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
Eighty-three percent of respondents to a new ABC/Ipsos poll said the economy was a very important or extremely important issue in determining their vote at the end of this year.
After that, 80 percent specifically cited inflation and 74 percent said gas prices.
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