As White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki downplays inflation’s impact on Thanksgiving, suggesting to Fox News’s Peter Doocy that the dollar increase on a 20-pound bird isn’t a huge deal, Americans have a different perspective.
According to a new Yahoo News/YouGov survey, 77 percent of Americans say inflation is affecting them as the holiday season kicks off. Worse for the administration, a majority—57 percent—place the blame squarely on President Biden.
Seventeen percent of respondents said inflation was the “most important issue facing America” – higher than other issues, including Covid-19.
Inflation jumped 6.2 percent in October, the largest monthly increase in about three decades, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Yahoo News/YouGov poll underscores just how novel and pervasive [pocketbook problems] seem. In addition to the nearly 8 in 10 Americans who now say inflation is affecting them personally (37 percent “a great deal”; 40 percent “some”), more than 6 in 10 (61 percent) say the same about “shortages of goods and services” (17 percent “a great deal”; 44 percent “some”).
A majority of Americans (51 percent) also say they’re worried they “won’t be able to afford what they need during the holidays due to inflation,” while 45 percent say they’re worried they “won’t be able to get what they need” due to shortages. [...]
[I]nflation worries aren’t merely partisan. Nearly 7 in 10 Democrats (69 percent) say inflation affects their lives at least "some" — not all that many less than the number of independents (79 percent) and Republicans (90 percent) who say the same. A quarter of Democrats (25 percent) and more than a third of independents (38 percent) say inflation affects them a "great deal.” Likewise, Democrats are nearly as worried as Republicans about inflation (46 percent vs. 60 percent) and shortages (41 percent vs. 50 percent) affecting their holiday purchases.
And while nearly all Republicans (90 percent) and two-thirds of independents (65 percent) assign Biden at least some blame for inflation, more than 1 in 4 Democrats (28 percent) do as well. (Yahoo)
In an effort to tackle rising gas prices, Biden announced Tuesday that he was releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic reserve, a move that was blasted by critics who argued the reserve is for national emergencies not the consequences of poor policy decisions and plummeting poll numbers.
