POL-Ele-0005-Stock White House/Pete Souza

In a carefully choreographed Cabinet meeting last Monday, Vice President Joe Biden began by touting the administration's economic accomplishments. President Obama responded by reminding his audience that "we're still in the middle of a very deep recession that was years in the making." The president then described the next phases of stimulus spending, being careful to say he "wasn't satisfied" with progress thus far.

This is pretty familiar stuff. Politicians point with pride, as Biden did, and point fingers, as Obama did by reminding his audience of what his administration "inherited," a favorite locution used by the president and his aides.

But there are other reasons for the administration's stepped-up emphasis on the economy. For starters, Democrats in Congress are clearly nervous, and they want to be able to show progress on the president's expansive and expensive initiatives. The unemployment rate rose to 9.4% last month, and gas prices are rising again. Long-term interest rates are rising and could slow the economy.

Additionally, the focus on health care and the president's trip abroad has taken the spotlight off the economy, Americans' top concern. Each month, Gallup asks Americans about the most important problem facing the country today. People can give any answer they like. When they posed the question in May, 47% said the top problem was the economy. No other issue even came close.

But there's another reason for the White House's concern, and that is the tentative evidence from recent surveys that people believe Obama now "owns" the economy--making it difficult for him to continue to blame the Bush administration.

It is certainly true that the president still enjoys substantial good will. His approval rating is strong. In Gallup's late May poll, his favorable rating was a solid (67%), slightly higher than George W. Bush's was in June of his first year (62%) and much higher than Bill Clinton's was at the same point in his presidency (48%).

But at the same time, the president's negatives on handling the economy are rising. A late May poll from Gallup and USA Today showed that 55% approved of the job the president was doing handling the economy, about the same proportion that gave the response in February (59%). But 42% now disapprove, up 12 percentage points from February. In the poll, slightly more respondents, 48%, disapproved of his efforts on the deficit than approved of them (45%). In addition, the proportion of respondents who said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the country appears to have stalled.

Public opinion on specific economic topics is also shifting. Most polls show that Americans oppose efforts to help the auto companies. The ABC News/Washington Post poll on Obama's first 100 days noted that the president's worst rating--in which 41% approved and 53% disapproved--were a response to how he handled that situation.

Further, the substantial role that the administration and taxpayers are now playing in the recovery doesn't sit well with most Americans. They supported the stimulus initially, but they are increasingly concerned about its cost. In the recent Gallup/USA Today poll, 45% approved of his efforts to control federal spending, but a bare majority (51%) disapproved. Shoveling more money at problems could revive the "big spender" label that has caused problems for Democrats in the past. The president's effort this week to revive "pay-go", the idea if Congress spends a dollar it must cut one elsewhere, shows the administration's sensitivity to this risk.

Obama and his aides also know that the public tends to be a lagging indicator in terms of sensing economic improvement. George W. Bush learned that in 1992, when he talked about the economy's green shoots. They were real, and the economy was improving, but most Americans didn't feel the effects personally.

Today most Americans appear to be more optimistic about the economy as a whole--for example, consumer confidence is up--but it will take a long time for them to believe things have turned around for them and their neighbors. In a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, 45% of respondents said they believed the economy was starting to get better; 42% said the Obama administration was just putting a positive spin on things. That's a problem for the president.

Karlyn Bowman is a senior fellow at AEI.