A majority of voters blame President Biden for rising inflation, according to a YouGov/Yahoo News poll released on Tuesday.
When asked about the causes of inflation, 80 percent of respondents said disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic played a roll. However, 57 percent also blamed the president for rising inflation, with 39 percent of those saying Biden shared “a great deal” of blame and 18 percent saying “some” of the blame.
Consumer prices rose 6.2 percent in October 2021 compared with the same month in 2020, the highest increase since November 1990. The increase includes a 59.1 percent jump in fuel prices over the previous year, and a 5.4 percent rise in food prices over the same period.
While more Republicans blame Biden for inflation than Democrats, respondents across the political spectrum said inflation had affected their lives. Among Democrats, 69 percent said inflation has affected their lives, compared with 79 percent of Independents and 90 percent of Republicans.
Voters are also worried about supply shortages, with 46 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans saying they were worried about the effects of shortages on holiday purchases.
Meanwhile, only 18 percent of all respondents said Biden was doing enough to address inflation.
The YouGov/Yahoo News poll was conducted from November 17-19 in online interviews of 1,696 American adults, with a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.
The poll was released as the president’s approval rating continues to fall, in a slide that appears to have accelerated since the end of July. Biden’s approval rating stood at 41.3 percent, with 53.4 percent disapproval, in the RealClearPolitics polling average on Wednesday.
Biden received a 42 percent approval rating in an NPR/Marist poll released Wednesday, the lowest rating in that survey since the president assumed office.
“Regardless of strong job numbers or the soaring stock market, Americans are worried about the economy and the reason is inflation,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement.
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