52% See Obama’s Economic Policies as Better Model for Biden Than Trump’s

Despite the explosive economic growth of the last four years interrupted only by the coronavirus lockdown, most voters want to return to the economic policies of President Obama.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 41% of Likely U.S. Voters think likely new President Joe Biden’s economic policies should be more like President Trump’s. Fifty-two percent (52%) disagree and say Biden’s economic policies should be more like Obama’s. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Predictably, 80% of Democrats - and a plurality (49%) of voters not affiliated with either major party - want Biden’s policies to be more like Obama’s, while 72% of Republicans think Trump’s economic policies should be the model.

Like Obama, Biden envisions greater government involvement in the U.S. economy. Forty percent (40%) of all voters believe more government will be good for the economy, while just as many (40%) see it as bad for the economy instead. Eleven percent (11%) say more government economic involvement will have no impact.

In mid-September, 52% of voters gave Trump good or excellent marks for his handling of the economy. By contrast, just 41% said the same of Obama as he neared the end of his fourth year in office.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted December 1-2, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Enthusiasm about the economy started to grow immediately following Trump's election as president, with the Rasmussen Reports Economic Index jumping to 147.8 by January 2020. Then it began its steep decline this February as the coronavirus lockdown threw Americans out of work and closed many businesses. Enthusiasm has started working its way up again in recent months with the Index standing at 126.4 just before Election Day. By comparison, in President Obama’s final years in office, this index reached a high of 121.5 in January 2015 and was at 108.1 his last month in the White House.

Still, Obama’s economic policies are favored over Trump’s in most demographic categories.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats think greater government involvement will be good for the economy. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters and unaffiliateds by a 43% to 31% margin see more government as bad for the economy.

The older the voter, the more skeptical they are of greater government involvement in the economy.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters who say Biden should emulate Obama’s economic policies think more government involvement will be good for the economy. Among those who see Trump’s economic policies as a better model, 79% say more government involvement will be bad for the economy instead.

Most voters continue to view big government as a problem and don’t want it, but they strongly suspect that more government and higher taxes are on the way with Biden in the White House.

As recently as June, confidence in the housing market remained high despite the lockdown and was still well above confidence throughout the Obama presidency.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it's free) or follow us on Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.