New poll on Thursday revealed that inflation is a top concern among Americans as midterm elections loom.
According to a survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports, 91 percent are concerned about inflation, a three-point jump from the 87 percent who said the same last month.
“Inflation hit a four-decade high of 8.557 percent in March and moved down to 8.3 percent in April. Economists had expected inflation to tick down to 8.2 percent in May,” Breitbart reported.
Among the 91 percent, 69 percent are “very” concerned about inflation. There seems to be a consensus across the aisle as well, as 97 percent of Republicans, 90 percent of Democrats, and 88 percent of independents are worried about inflation.
Meanwhile, 89 percent said that they are extremely concerned about the economy. Of those, 69 percent are “very” concerned.
The poll also found that Americans are also concerned about other issues including violent crime (88 percent), climate change (64 percent), illegal immigration (66 percent), and preventing cheating in elections (75 percent.)
Due to the rising inflation and skyrocketing gas prices, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that Americans are suffering from financial strain.
“Paired with historic inflation and shortages for basic goods like baby formula, the rising cost of gas is the result of Joe Biden and Democrats’ anti-U.S. energy agenda,” McDaniel said. “Unfortunately, Biden only plans to make this crisis worse for families by not doing anything.”
Consumers are also believed to be spending more on gas as they are cutting back on other consumer goods and services.
“We think the 20% spike in gas prices may be lowering nominal non-gas consumption by $9.6 billion per month—shaving 0.26% off of overall nominal consumption on an annualized basis,” said Peter McCrory, U.S. Economist at J.P. Morgan Research.
Most recently, President Joe Biden claimed that soaring gas prices is transitory toward a greener economy but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that the administration’s prediction had been “wrong.”
“I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” Yellen said. “As I mentioned there have been unanticipated and large shocks to the economy that have boosted energy and food prices and um, supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly, that I didn’t, at the time, understand.”
