Americans feel bullish on the economy, and most like Biden’s handling of it

While stock market booms and consumer confidence are generally fickle and often unrelated to current policy decisions at any given moment, that may be less true now than at any time in recent memory. The Biden administration’s swift and competent rollout of a national vaccination program—that more than doubled the number of doses Biden had originally pledged—is directly related to the economic boost Americans are feeling as they emerge from a lengthy period of government lockdowns and personal guardedness. 

Biden’s American Rescue Plan, quickly approved by congressional Democrats, has also contributed to the overall sense of hope and relief many people feel. In fact, data compiled by New York investor and former Obama adviser Steve Rattner showed that Biden’s rescue plan was bringing immediate relief to many of the nation’s most vulnerable residents. While roughly one-third of Americans reported having difficulty paying their expenses every month since last fall, the number who said that in March—as direct payments hit bank accounts nationwide—dropped to 29% and will likely drop even further in April. The number of people reporting food scarcity on a monthly basis moved from double digits since last fall to single digits in March, at 9%.

As Biden chief of staff Ron Klain remarked about the data, “If you know something about how government works, the fact that the American Rescue Plan is making a difference this quickly is quite a statement about how the government is working.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the American Rescue Plan continues to poll well during its initial phases. This week’s ABC News/Washington Post poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans, 65%, approve of the relief package—support that maps closely to other recent polls. Likewise, 64% of respondents in the poll approved of Biden’s handling of the pandemic. In fact, Biden has consistently earned his strongest marks for his handling of the pandemic, with anywhere from 60% – 70% of adults signaling their approval in polling over the last several weeks.

But those approvals don’t exist in a vacuum. As the White House noted on Day One of Biden’s presidency, the country’s overall well-being would be directly related to the federal government’s ability to bring relief to the American people. 

“Absent additional government assistance, the economic and public health crises could worsen in the months ahead,” the White House said on the day Biden was inaugurated.

Instead, as the country’s public health has improved, the economy has gotten a boost along with it. So much so that Biden’s numbers on his handling of the economy are now rivaling Trump’s numbers, as PBS News Hour reported earlier this month. In mid-April, a PBS/NPR/Marist poll found 54% of adults approved of Biden’s economic handling, while Trump’s handling of the economy “topped out” at 53% of Americans at its high point in July 2019, according to Marist polling data.

In the past week, most 100-day polling has found majority approval for Biden’s handling of the economy:

As Donald Trump campaigned last year, he painted an apocalyptic portrait of where the nation and its economy would go under a Biden presidency. In February 2020, Trump told a group of business leaders, with his usual nuance, “If I don’t win, you’re going to see a [market] crash like you’ve never seen before.”

Last October, Trump tweeted, “This election is a choice between a TRUMP RECOVERY or a BIDEN DEPRESSION … It’s a choice between a TRUMP BOOM or a BIDEN LOCKDOWN. It’s a choice between our plan to Kill the virus – or Biden’s plan to kill the American Dream!”

Yeah, not so much. Trump walked the nation directly into the buzzsaw of the pandemic, and the economy tanked. Biden has devoted a laser-like focus to stamping out the virus and saving American lives, and the economy has followed.