Susan Page

If that persists until the midterms, that would be the worst standing for a president since Harry Truman.

So that is a red alarm blaring for Republicans because when a president's approval rating is that low, when it sinks to 40 percent or below, that is really a time we see often dozens of House seats lost by the president's party.

You know, when we talk about the economy, often we talk about things like the unemployment rate or the GDP or the inflation rate.

And those are important numbers, and those numbers are actually looking pretty good.

But if you look at how people are feeling about the economy, it's not so good.

That's one reason we were looking at the University of Michigan survey, which goes back to the 1950s.

It asked Americans whether they feel like around their kitchen table the economy is doing well or not well, how optimistic or pessimistic they are about the future.

And the number in February was 57.3.

So to put that in some context, the lowest the rating has been in the past half century is 50.

The highest it's been is just over 111.

So this is a relatively low rating.

This is a sign that a lot of voters, a lot of Americans are feeling that the economy isn't doing well.

It's not doing well for them and their families.

And we find in their survey that the wealthier you are, the more you're invested in the stock market, for instance, the better you're feeling.

But for households that are not invested in the stock market, they are as pessimistic now as they've been even at the end of the COVID pandemic.

Well, we do see gas prices down.

We see the inflation rate under better control.

Egg prices, which were a big source of concern in the Biden administration, are way down.

But electricity costs are up.

People are finding it harder to buy a home.