Debunking Karine Jean-Pierre’s claim that Americans feel good about their finances
Jack Elbaum
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During a press briefing earlier today, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that “Americans feel better about their personal finances” right now relative to the past few years. She implicitly gave credit to President Joe Biden’s policies, but there is no data to support this claim.
Each year, Gallup polls people on this exact question. In April 2023, 55% of Americans said their personal finances were either “only fair” or “poor,” while 45% said their finances were either “excellent” or “good.” Looking toward the future, 50% say they think the situation is getting worse, while 37% say they believe it is getting better.
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These numbers are all worse than they were when Biden took office.
Since April 2021, the proportion of Americans who say they have a good or excellent financial situation has gone down by 12 percentage points. Additionally, the proportion who say the financial situation is getting worse has gone up by 20 percentage points since 2021.
The last time confidence was this low was in 2008, at the low point of the Great Recession. For the middle class, this is the worst they have felt about their financial future at any time since Gallup started asking the question in 2004.
These findings are consistent with other polls done by YouGov and Bankrate.
Likewise, according to the RealClearPolitics average, fewer than 40% approve of Biden’s economic performance, while almost 57% disapprove. Keep in mind, the public was overwhelmingly positive about Biden and the economy when he took office.
So the data are clear: Americans do not feel better about their personal finances now than they did in past years. In fact, they actually feel worse about their finances than they did at the worst point of the COVID-19 pandemic.
That the White House actually seems to believe people are feeling good about the economy and their own personal finances, though, demonstrates just how out of touch it is with the public.
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Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.