Over the last several months, we have been dedicating some time and energy in the Daily Kos/Civiqs survey to trying to figure out why President Joe Biden’s approval ratings are nearly 10 points underwater.

The first of these Civiqs surveys tested the popularity of many policies Biden had already implemented by August, such as the vaccine rollout and passing pandemic relief. The survey found that 10 of the 12 policies were quite popular and polled above water. So enacting popular policies doesn’t necessarily ensure a president will be popular these days.

The second survey in October tried to pinpoint which issues voters were most dissatisfied with and found that economic issues such as gas prices, the cost of household goods, and the price of health care were among the biggest sticking points.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll added some notable data points to the picture:

Biden is 16 points underwater on his handling of the economy: 39% approve/55% disapprove.
Just 29% of Americans described the nation's economy in positive terms (excellent/good) while 70% viewed it negatively (not so good/poor).
Only 35% of Americans think Biden has accomplished a great deal or a good amount since he took office, while 63% said the president had achieved either not very much or little to nothing.
Even worse, only 31% of Americans say Biden is keeping most of his major campaign promises while 51% say he is not. Those numbers are pretty abysmal. Around this time in 2017, even 35% of Americans said Donald Trump was making good on most of his campaign promises while 60% said Barack Obama was keeping most of his campaign promises at a similar juncture in his first term.  

My two major takeaways from that information are: 1) economic issues are really getting people down; and 2) most Americans really don’t believe President Biden is delivering for them.

To some extent, both of those perceptions could be improved at least somewhat by a more aggressive sales pitch, though that’s probably more true for the second conclusion than the first.

Democrats do have positive things to sell concerning the economy: wages are up, the stock market continues to set records, and Biden has posted record job growth in the first year of his presidency.

The problem is, every time someone fills up their gas tank or runs to the grocery store, they are reminded that something is still very wrong with this pandemic economy. This coming winter will likely only exacerbate that perception as home heating costs are expected to spike.

Some of these issues—gas prices, in particular—are mostly out of a president’s control. That said, Democrats could develop a message along the lines of: We understand you are hurting and the pandemic is still squeezing people’s pocket books, which is exactly why we passed the American Rescue Plan, cut $1,400 checks to people, gave parents and families a big tax cut through the child tax credit, and delivered a major jobs growth package. 

But the notion that Biden isn’t delivering seems almost purely a product of anemic messaging after Democrats spent months trying to coalesce around the infrastructure bill and Biden’s family/climate plan. However, passage of the infrastructure bill has already given the president an opportunity to move past the dysfunction narrative and rally around a giant job-creation measure that is good for families, the economy, and American competitiveness.

Bottom line, economic issues appear to have been one major drag on President Biden’s approvals, and while some of those issues are difficult to control, some are also likely to work themselves out over time. But the notion that Biden hasn’t delivered anything is entirely fixable as stocks soar, job growth booms, nearly 230 million Americans have gotten the jab, and Democrats have enacted two separate trillion-dollar stimulus packages during Biden’s first year in office.

President Biden and his allies have already hit the road to sell his latest accomplishment, but congressional Democrats must spend the lion’s share of next year wrapping up their entire package of goods in a bow for voters.