Biden’s First Year

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One year into his term in office, President Joe Biden is seeing his approval decline and nearly two-thirds of Americans say the country is on the wrong track, according to the results of a recent University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll released today.

The nationwide poll of 1,000 respondents found 53% of respondents disapprove of the president’s performance and 41% approve of the job Biden has done so far. More than half (55%) also say he has fallen short of their expectations, while 45% say his presidency has met (36%) or exceeded (9%) expectations. CONTINUED

University of Massachusetts Amherst

If Democrats can’t pass their agenda now, they may not get another chance for years. Here’s why

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The last four times a president went into midterm elections holding unified control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, as Joe Biden and Democrats do now, voters have revoked it.

It happened to Donald Trump in 2018, Barack Obama in 2010, George W. Bush in 2006 and Bill Clinton in 1994: All lost control of at least one congressional chamber, crippling their ability to advance their legislative agendas. In fact, no president who went into midterms with unified control of government has successfully defended it since Jimmy Carter in 1978, when Democrats were still cushioned by the enormous margins they amassed in the backlash against Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

That’s the foreboding history heightening Democratic anxiety about their struggle to move the key pillars of their economic and voting rights agenda past the resistance of Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. CONTINUED

Ronald Brownstein, CNN

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Biden Approval Rating Relapses As Omicron Surges, Stock Market Slumps

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President Joe Biden’s approval rating has slipped back underwater amid fading support for his handling of the pandemic. Rising inflation concerns also are hurting the president. And investors may be rethinking their support as the stock market, particularly the tech sector, wobbles amid hawkish Federal Reserve signals.

The January IBD/TIPP Poll finds Biden’s approval rating fell nine-tenths of a point to 49.2 over the past month. That index measure indicates that 49.2% of adults surveyed approve of Biden’s job performance, excluding those who were unsure or declined to state an opinion. Biden’s 49.2 approval rating from IBD/TIPP reflects the disapproval of 45% of adults, while 44% approve of how he’s handling his job. CONTINUED

Jed Graham, Investor’s Business Daily

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2022: The Public’s Priorities and Expectations

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As nearly 800,000 Americans died due to the pandemic and the economy experiences a surge of inflation and an employment slowdown, most Americans are pessimistic about the year ahead. COVID-19 continues to top the list of Americans’ priorities for the government to address, but not as overwhelmingly as last year.

To explore the public’s agenda for 2022, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted a poll in December 2021 in which respondents provided up to five volunteered issues that they believe should be priorities for the federal government in 2022.

Various aspects of the economy remain a major issue for the government to work on in 2022, and inflation specifically has been mentioned for the first time in years. And 24% name pocketbook issues like gas prices as a priority for the government. CONTINUED

AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

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How will history judge former President Trump?

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A panel of historians is releasing its third collection of essays analyzing and assessing the accomplishments and failures of a presidential administration. But for the first time, a former president, Donald Trump, spoke to the historians to offer his own take on his time in office. Correspondent Rita Braver talks with Princeton University’s Julian Zelizer, who assembled the panel, and with the academics who unpack history’s first judgment of the 45th president.

CBS Sunday Morning

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Slowing immigration worsens job market shortages

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One of the biggest stories in America at the start of 2022 is what has been called the great resignation: people of all ages and occupations walking away from their jobs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to worker shortages.

The forces behind those shortages are complex, from fears of infection to childcare needs to worker burnout, but one factor that may be overlooked is that fewer new Americans are coming into the country. The past few years have seen a sharp drop in immigration and those declines have had real impacts on the worker pool. CONTINUED

Dante Chinni, NBC News

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