By CatholicVote | Created at 2025-01-15 22:21:11 | Updated at 2025-01-16 00:58:28
2 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // The majority of Americans have largely negative views of the Biden administration’s accomplishments across the past four years, a December 2024 Gallup poll found.
While respondents were largely divided in their opinions on President Joe Biden’s success according to political party, an overall 67% held negative opinions of Biden’s handling of the national debt, while 64% had similar views on immigration.
Six in 10 respondents also said the U.S. made no progress in closing the gap between the rich and less well-off, and similar numbers said the same thing about fixing the economy and advancing the United States’ position on a global scale. A slim majority (51%) said the U.S. lost ground in reducing crime during the past four years.
“Meanwhile, U.S. adults are more likely to see progress (39%) than regression (23%) or steadiness (31%) on just one of the issues — the situation for gay, lesbian and transgender people,” Gallup reported, adding that Americans also generally thought the U.S. “stood still” during the past four years on climate change and the “situation for Black people.”
According to the poll, respondents overall were generally split between two views on healthcare, national defense and the military, and taxes, with some saying the areas regressed during the Biden administration and some reporting they remained the same.
Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents were more likely than Republicans or Republican-leaning independents to generally approve of the United States’ progress during the past four years. Democrats overall did not hold positive views of the country’s handling of taxes, immigration, federal debt, or the gap between wealthy and less well-off Americans.
Republicans, however, said the U.S. “lost ground” in almost every area identified by the Gallup poll, with the majority considering immigration and federal debt to be the most poorly handled issues. The only area in which Republicans said the Biden administration made progress was the “situation for gay, lesbian, and transgender people.”
Compared to similar polls taken near the end of other presidential terms, Biden’s net progress was lower than many other former presidents.
“Biden’s net progress lags his three immediate predecessors’ significantly on national defense and the military, immigration, and taxes, and is also worse than Obama’s and Trump’s on the federal debt, the gap between the wealthy and less well-off, and trade relations with other countries,” Gallup reported.
The poll also found that President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration and former President Barack Obama’s second administration, made more progress than Biden on energy, healthcare, the United States’ global position, and the economy. However, respondents said that Biden performed better in the four areas than former president George W. Bush did during his second term.
Respondents were also more likely to say that Bush and Trump made more progress on crime and terrorism than Biden and Obama. However, Bush and Obama received more favorable ratings of the progress made in education during their terms than either Biden or Trump.
