Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, Sponsored by Matt Palumbo's "How the Left Hijacked and Weaponized the Fact-Checking Industry." Friday shows that 43% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Biden’s job performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) disapprove.

The latest figures include 24% who Strongly Approve of the job Biden is doing and 46% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -22. (see trends)

Sign up: Free daily newsletter

Rasmussen Reports is the only nationally recognized public opinion firm that still tracks President Biden's job approval ratings on a daily basis. If your organization is interested in a weekly or longer sponsorship of Rasmussen Reports' Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, please send e-mail to info@rasmussenreports.com.

Strongly Disapprove

Strongly Approve

Some readers wonder how we come up with our job approval ratings for the president since they often don’t show as dramatic a change as some other pollsters do. It depends on how you ask the question and whom you ask.

To get a sense of longer-term job approval trends for the president, Rasmussen Reports compiles our tracking data on a full month-by-month basis.

Rasmussen Reports has been a pioneer in the use of automated telephone polling techniques, but many other firms still utilize their own operator-assisted technology (see methodology).

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 300 likely voters per night and reported on a five-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters is +/- 2.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results are available for Platinum Members.

7 Reasons To Shop Local And Support Small Businesses

Co-Founder and CEO of Upwise Capital, a leading small business financing marketplace specializing in the cannabis industry.

Small businesses continue to be the bread and butter of our economy. And although local small businesses are considered the underdogs next to big box conglomerates, global banks and large supply chains, the pros of supporting locally run businesses pack quite a punch.

The impact of Covid-19 has left an unimaginable mark on the global community—and small businesses are no exception.

Let’s break down why it’s a great idea to support local small businesses.

Stimulate Local Economies

By making a commitment to shop local or support small businesses, you cycle money back into your community. If you’re like most Americans, you shop at large chain stores. You may even feel like it’s an obligation to shop at these places because they have the best deals and you can find whatever you’re looking for. However, there are many reasons why buying local is better for your community and for your wallet.

The tax revenue made through sale taxes from local businesses support the local government. This is then used to reinvest in the community. However, big box retailers often receive tax breaks from local governments that don’t give local businesses such a luxury. By choosing to invest money into a large big box chain elsewhere, local communities won’t reap any of the benefits.

Reduce The Carbon Footprint

One word: transportation. A local small business tends to make more local purchases, which requires less transportation (less pollution and congestion). Additionally, since they are set up in a town or city, it will generally reduce traffic, habitat loss and resource depletion.

Create More Jobs

According to the Small Business Administration: “The 2019 Small Business Profiles show that small businesses added 1.8 million net new jobs in the United States during the latest year studied. The United States has 30.7 million small businesses, and they employ 47.3 percent of the private workforce.” Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They help push economic growth and the local economy by opening up employment opportunities locally to people who may not want to be employed by these big box businesses.

Give Back To The Local Community

Small businesses are known to play a significant role in supporting local community charities and causes. It’s clear that local businesses benefit from a strong community, therefore the owners tend to be more engaged members of the community themselves. Small businesses donate 250% more than large businesses to local nonprofits and community causes, creating a positive cycle of giving back locally. This includes local charities, youth organizations, local first responders, local service groups and more.

Better Customer Service

When it comes to a small-business owner, all purchases, deals and positive reviews matter. Local store owners value each of their customers, and their very livelihood hangs on your own happiness. Unlike big chains, local businesses often hire people with proficient knowledge of the products they are selling or the ins and outs of the business they are running. Employees take the time to really get to know their clients and customers, making for an overall pleasant experience. Also, if you do have a quandary, rest assured you won’t be hashing it out with a robot.

Nurture Innovation And Growth

It’s simple. In order for small businesses to stay afloat, they need to stand out from their big box competition. It’s this type of survival-of-the-fittest mentality that allows small-business owners to become innovative entrepreneurs—conjuring up avant-garde ideas for solutions to problems, creating new unique products and taking new customers’ specific situations into account when assisting with their personal needs.

Support The American Dream

The American dream is the theory in which equality of opportunity should be made available to any American, allowing them to achieve their highest individual aspirations and goals. Small-business owners not only believe in this dream but have actively pursued it. By supporting small businesses and shopping small, you’re supporting real, genuine people who have put their passion ahead of convenience and whole-heartedly believe in the business they are running.

Now more than ever, it’s time to encourage strangers and friends alike to think globally, shop small, support local businesses and ultimately fund a better tomorrow.

Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms. Do I qualify?

Steam Dumps Official Support for Windows 7 and Windows 8

The New Year begins with some bad news for gamers still on older versions of Windows: Steam has officially dropped support for Windows 7 and Windows 8. 

It’s possible the Steam client may still be able to run on both operating systems. Just don’t expect to receive any software updates from Valve. 

We've known about the loss of support since March 2023, when the company mentioned that the Steam client would “no longer run on those versions of Windows," effective Jan. 1, 2024.

Valve has since updated its post to delete that language and say: “We expect the Steam client and games on these older operating systems to continue running for some time without updates after January 1st, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.”

Valve adds that the decision to drop support also means the Steam client for Windows 7 and 8  “will no longer receive updates of any kind including security updates.” Hence, affected users can expect a diminishing experience over time that could expose them to security threats.  

“We strongly encourage all Windows 7/8/8.1 users to update sooner rather than later,” Valve added in the post. “Computers running these operating systems, when connected to the internet, are susceptible to new malware and other exploits which will not be patched.” 

Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 7 in 2020 and Windows 8.1 in January 2023. But a small group of Steam users have continued to stick with the operating systems. According to Valve’s own statistics from December, about 0.89% of Steam users are still on Windows 7 or 8.

Valve says it was forced to drop the support because Steam uses an embedded version of Chrome that “no longer functions on older versions of Windows.” The company adds: “future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.”