While Vice President Kamala Harris struggles to talk people into believing that the economy is going gangbusters, the nation continues to push back as it struggles with double-digit price hikes on basics such as eggs and fuel.
And now, even the Gallup poll agrees.
In its latest survey, a majority of people feel “worse off” after four years of Biden-Harris, confirming an earlier Rasmussen Reports poll out this week.
Gallup’s analysis wasn’t a positive one for Harris, either, comparing the findings to what it found in 1992, when the country threw out President George H.W. Bush for Bill Clinton during a similar inflationary period.
“More than half of Americans (52%) say they and their family are worse off today than they were four years ago, while 39% say they are better off and 8% volunteer that they are about the same. The 2024 response is most similar to 1992 among presidential election years in which Gallup has asked the question,” the analysis out Friday morning said.
Gallup uses an “Economic Confidence Index” to test the nation’s economic well-being. The latest came in ice cold.
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Ronald Reagan debating then-President Jimmy Carter, 1980. pic.twitter.com/5rvyCVUOGC
— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) September 6, 2024
“In 1992, a relatively low 38% of Americans said they were better off with the ECI at -37; and the incumbent, George H.W. Bush, lost. In 2004, when nearly half said they were better off and the ECI was +1, and George W. Bush won reelection. Similarly, 45% felt better off in 2012 when the ECI was -1, and Barack Obama won. Yet, in 2020, while 55% claimed to be better off and the ECI was -4, Trump lost his reelection bid — a sign that noneconomic factors were paramount to voters that year,” Gallup wrote.
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“Gallup’s latest measurement of Americans’ economic views, from an Oct. 1-12 poll, puts the ECI at -26 — one of the worst election-year readings, along with the 39% ‘better off’ reading from September,” the polling outfit said.
The survey was in line with what Rasmussen found when it tested Ronald Reagan’s famous 1980 question that helped doom then-President Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” In that survey, 56% said “no.”
