CNN Poll: View of Nation’s Economy Is the Worst It’s Been Since 2011

The hits just keep coming for the Biden administration. The economy and inflation have been burying Democrats in their fight to somehow hold power in the midterms, then the leaked Supreme Court abortion draft consumed headlines and provided hope that maybe a GOP wave wasn’t a total lock for November.

However, given the total collapse of confidence in Biden’s leadership and the continued bad economic situation facing the country, not even the threat of overturning Roe v. Wade looks like it will overcome a general feeling of malaise among voters on all sides:

The US public’s view of the nation’s economy is the worst it’s been in a decade, a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS finds, with many Americans also saying they feel financial strain in their own lives.

That pessimism also reflects on President Joe Biden, whose ratings for handling the economy remain sharply negative. A majority of US adults say his policies have hurt the economy, and 8 in 10 say the government isn’t doing enough to combat inflation.

Only 23% rate economic conditions as even somewhat good, down from 37% in December and 54% last April. The last time public perception of the economy was this poor in CNN’s polling was November 2011, when 18% called economic conditions good.

Less than one-quarter rate economic conditions in the country as even “somewhat good.” Let that sink in for a second. Abortion aside, how do Democrats overcome a beaten down party base that’s barely able to tread water among themselves with the belief that somehow Democrats in power have improved the country?

The Democratic Party knows that question is being asked which is why the pivot on Biden’s part to suddenly embrace some kind of student loan forgiveness took over the headlines right before the leaked Roe opinion draft.

Democrats need young voters and their typical coalitions to turn out in 2022. If they can’t muster some energy, they’re toast. Buying votes has worked since the beginning of time, and offering voters drowning in student debt a life raft seems like a good way to buy votes without directly buying votes. Loan “forgiveness” is another way to say, “someone else pays for it.”

The numbers from this CNN poll are gruesome for Democrats, hide the children:

Overall, only 19% of Americans think Biden’s policies have improved economic conditions in the US, with 26% saying they’ve had no effect and 55% saying they’ve made conditions worse — a further devolution since December, when 45% said the President’s policies had made things worse.

Who are the 19% that say Biden made the economy better? That group probably constitutes the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party that would say anything other than Trump is an improvement to any situation.

For Democrats hoping to keep the House in November, that outcome seems more impossible by the day absent some massive uptick in public sentiment. The real question now is whether Democrats have a hope to hold the Senate. With numbers like this at the top for Biden, convincing voters in somewhere like Ohio that putting so-called moderate Democrat Tim Ryan in the Senate rather than Trump-endorsed J.D. Vance will be a tough sell.

Even with the looming potential that Roe v. Wade could be overturned, leaving states to regulate abortion, Democrats may be sad to find that most voters vote with their wallets.