Few Americans say President Joe Biden’s policies have provided a lot of help to middle-class families – or to poor or wealthy families for that matter. The Monmouth University Poll also finds that worries about the impact of inflation on Americans’ pocketbooks have ebbed but it remains a top concern.

Just 10% of Americans say middle-class families have benefited a lot from Biden’s policies so far while 51% say the middle class has not benefited at all. In the first months of his term, more said the middle class benefited a lot (19% in June 2021) and fewer said not at all (36%). Biden’s current numbers are similar to where former President Donald Trump stood in the first year of his administration (11% a lot and 53% not at all in December 2017), but those results improved by the end of his term (32% a lot and 32% not at all).

Former President Barack Obama left office with ratings of 24% a lot and 33% not at all on how his policies helped the middle class. Of note, 44% of Democrats said Obama helped the middle class a lot in January 2017, but only 21% say the same about Biden now. Among independents, 36% said Obama did not help the middle class at all. Today, about 6 in 10 independents (59%) say the same about Biden. When asked about the current president’s impact on other economic groups, 28% say Biden’s policies have benefited wealthy families a lot and 29% say not at all, and 17% say his policies have benefited poor families a lot and 42% say not at all.

“Biden’s appeal when he ran for president was that he understands the average Joe. Reaction to his policy agenda, however, suggests it is an area where he remains weak,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Currently, 38% of Americans describe themselves as middle class, 29% as working class, 14% as poor, and 16% as upper middle class or higher. There are only small partisan differences in these self-reports of economic status. However, there are partisan differences in response to a question about financial stability. Overall, 4 in 10 Americans (41%) say they are struggling to remain where they are financially, while 46% feel their finances are stable and just 12% say their situation is improving. The current results are in line with polling conducted last year. In prior polls conducted between 2017 and 2021, the number who said they were struggling ranged within a lower level between 20% and 29%. Currently, the number of Americans who feel they are struggling include nearly 9 in 10 of those who consider themselves to be poor, about half of the working class, nearly 3 in 10 of the middle class, and about 1 in 8 of those who are upper middle class or even better off. In terms of partisanship, Republicans (45%) and independents (46%) are more likely than Democrats (28%) to report they are struggling. There were no partisan differences on this question in 2017 – 28% of Republicans, 28% of independents, and 31% of Democrats said they were struggling then (* see note).

One-quarter of the public names inflation (24%) or rising gas prices (1%) as the biggest concern facing their family right now, which is down from the number who said the same last summer (33% for inflation in general and 15% for gas prices specifically). The economy (12%) and paying bills (12%) are among other top concerns mentioned. Six years ago, affording health care was the biggest concern for American families (25% in January 2017), followed by job security (14%) and everyday bills (12%). Today, just 4% mention health care costs and 5% name job security as their top worry.

Half of those who name a family concern (49%) say the federal government’s actions over the past six months have hurt their family when it comes to that issue. Just 10% say they have been helped and 38% say federal actions have had no real impact on their top concern. This result is slightly better than last year as inflation concerns peaked and 57% said that federal government actions hurt them. However, the 1 in 10 number saying government has helped them is on the lower end of that metric since Monmouth started asking this question in 2015. Six years ago, when health care was the dominant issue, 27% said the federal government was helpful and 37% said it was hurtful. Nearly half of Democrats (48%) in 2017 said federal action helped with their family’s top concern, but just 19% say the same today. Conversely, 61% of Republicans said the federal government hurt them when it came to their top concern in 2017, and this number has risen further to 71% in 2023.

In general, few Americans feel that members of Congress give a great deal (6%) or even some (28%) weight to the concerns of average Americans when they decide which policies to support. Democrats (42%) are somewhat more likely than Republicans (33%) or independents (30%) to feel that Congress gives at least some weight to average Americans’ concerns. These overall results are similar to Monmouth’s 2017 poll, although Republicans were slightly more positive about Congress then (45% said they give a great deal or some weight, compared with 39% of Democrats and 36% of independents).

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from March 16 to 20, 2023 with 805 adults in the United States.  The question results in this release have a margin of error of +/- 5.8 percentage points for the full sample. The poll was conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute in West Long Branch, NJ.

* Note on partisan results for financial situation question (Q10):

Monmouth’s question asking respondents to assess their current financial situation seems straightforward, but like almost all aspects of public discourse today, is filtered through a partisan lens. Even though the overall results for this question remained relatively stable from 2017 through 2021, there were substantial partisan shifts after the White House changed hands. Specifically, 24% of Americans said they were struggling financially in both 2018 and 2021. However, the number of Republicans who reported this situation jumped from 14% to 30% after the presidency changed from Trump to Biden, while the number of Democrats who said they were struggling dropped from 34% to 17%. The results for independents were relatively stable (23% in 2018 and 27% in 2021). Thus, the results of this question as a neutral snapshot of personal finances should be viewed with this caveat in mind. Reports of struggling financially have increased since 2021 among all partisan groups, but more so among Republicans (+15 points) and independents (+19) than among Democrats (+11).

QUESTIONS AND RESULTS     

(* Some columns may not add to 100% due to rounding.)

[Q1-4 previously released.]

5. Turning to issues closer to home, what is the biggest concern facing your family right now?

[LIST WAS NOT READ]

[Question 6 was asked only of those who mentioned a concern in Q5: n=735, moe=+/-6.1 %]

6. Thinking about this most important concern, have the actions of the federal government over the past six months helped, hurt, or had no real impact on this concern?

* Dec. 2021 asked about “since the beginning of the year”

        ** 2019 and 2018 asked about “the past year”

*** 2017 and 2015 asked about “the past few years”

7. How much have each of the following groups benefited from President Biden’s policies so far.  [READ ITEM] – Have they benefited a lot, a little, or not at all? [ITEMS WERE ROTATED]

Middle class families

Wealthy families

Poor families

8. How much weight do members of Congress give to the concerns of average Americans when they decide which policies to support – a great deal, some, not much, or none at all?

9. Would you describe your current financial situation as poor, working class, middle class, upper middle class, or better off than that?

10. Thinking about your current financial situation, would you say you are struggling to remain where you are financially, basically stable in your current financial situation, or is your financial situation improving?

[Q11-17 held for future release.]

[Q18-27 previously released.]

METHODOLOGY

The Monmouth University Poll was sponsored and conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute from March 16 to 20, 2023 with a probability-based national random sample of 805 adults age 18 and older. This includes 284 contacted by a live interviewer on a landline telephone and 521 contacted by a live interviewer on a cell phone, in English. Telephone numbers were selected through a mix of random digit dialing and list-based sampling. Landline respondents were selected with a modified Troldahl-Carter youngest adult household screen. Interviewing services were provided by Braun Research, with sample obtained from Dynata (RDD, n= 479), Aristotle (list, n= 133) and a panel of prior Monmouth poll participants (n= 193). Monmouth is responsible for all aspects of the survey design, data weighting and analysis. The full sample is weighted for region, age, education, gender and race based on US Census information (ACS 2021 one-year survey). For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling has a maximum margin of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points, adjusted for sample design effects (1.68). Sampling error can be larger for sub-groups (see table below). In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

Crosstabs may be found in the PDF file on the report webpage:  https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_US_041123/