Two years into a presidency that the White House casts as the most effective in modern history, President Biden is set to deliver a State of the Union address Tuesday to a skeptical country with a majority of Americans saying they do not believe he has achieved much since taking office, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The poll finds that 62 percent of Americans think Biden has accomplished “not very much’’ or “little or nothing’’ during his presidency, while 36 percent say he has accomplished “a great deal’’ or “a good amount.’’ On many of Biden’s signature initiatives — from improving the country’s infrastructure to making electric vehicles more affordable to creating jobs — majorities of Americans say they do not believe he has made progress, the poll finds.

The dynamic arguably raises the stakes of Biden’s prime-time speech on Tuesday. The president is expected to use the platform to tout his accomplishments and remind voters that many of the laws he signed during the first half of his term are just now being implemented.

It’s a message he has pushed since before the midterm elections, when his party’s better-than-expected performance convinced many aides that, despite his low approval ratings, Americans largely support his agenda. Biden has said one of his main goals for the year is to make sure Americans feel the impact of the laws he signed during his first two years in office, including a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, legislation aimed at combating climate change, a $52 billion effort to boost domestic manufacturing, and a cap on the price of insulin for seniors.

“It’s one thing to have passed it all; now we have to make sure we’re on it every single day. Not a joke,’’ Biden said in a Jan. 26 speech on the economy. “Implementing it so people can see what we’ve delivered and give it to them directly.’’

Overall, the poll's findings are not reassuring for either party. On the looming fight over the debt limit, most Americans are closer to Biden's position than the GOP's, and most dismiss Republican plans to investigate the government's "weaponization" as political.

And Americans have little confidence in either Biden or House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, to make the right decisions for the country’s future. Just under 2 in 10 Americans have “a great deal’’ or “a good amount’’ of confidence in the speaker to do so; 71 percent have “just some’’ or no confidence at all. A similarly high 72 percent say they lack such confidence in congressional Republicans, and 68 percent say the same about Biden and 70 percent about congressional Democrats.

But Biden is the one who will be making his case to the American people Tuesday. And many of them say he has not yet made much progress on key issues.

While 77 percent of Democrats say Biden has accomplished at least a good amount, that drops to 32 percent among political independents. Only seven percent of Republicans say he has accomplished much, while 93 percent say he has accomplished not very much, little, or nothing.

Doubts about Biden’s achievements are higher than those for then-President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2012. As Obama sought reelection, 52 percent of adults said he had accomplished “not much’’ or “little or nothing’’ at both points. In a potentially ominous sign for the White House, Biden’s numbers are roughly on par with the negative ratings of former president Donald Trump, who went on to lose his reelection.

Biden has said the Obama administration did not do enough to tout its legislative victories in the aftermath of the Great Recession and has promised not to repeat that mistake.

The president received good news Friday, with the release of new data showing that the labor market added 517,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent, the lowest level since May 1969.

Yet a growing number of Americans say their own financial circumstances are worsening on Biden's watch. Roughly 4 in 10 Americans (41 percent) say they are not as well-off financially since Biden became president, up from 35 percent one year ago and the highest percentage to report such a sentiment under any president in Post-ABC polls since measurement began in 1986.

Republicans have seized on that sense of gloom, hammering Biden over high prices, pointing to layoffs in the tech sector and blaming Biden’s COVID relief spending for inflation.