Granite State Times

New Hampshire residents have joined in on the opposition to the “Build Back Better Plan,” citing a distrust in President Joe Biden’s ability to reduce inflation.

According to the most recent December inflation numbers, the U.S. is currently experiencing a 39-year high in price surges. The last time consumer prices climbed by this magnitude was 1982. 

"Inflation at a nearly 40-year high is not something the Federal Reserve can ignore,” Danielle DiMartino Booth, Quill Intelligence CEO and a former adviser to then-Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, told Fox Business.

The producer price index (PPI) for final demand increased 9.6% over the previous year after rising another 0.8% in November, CNBC reports. Economists had been seeking an annual gain of 9.2%, according to FactSet. When you exclude food, energy and trade services, prices rose 0.7% for the month, putting core PPI at 6.9%, which is also the largest gain on record. Analysts had predicted respective gains of 0.4% and 7.2%. Those numbers mean the monthly gain was higher than estimates, but the year-over-year measure was a bit lower.

“While gas prices are starting to decline, there is still plenty of food inflation. There is risk now that inflation has become entrenched in households’ psyches, which further pressures policymakers at the Fed to be more aggressive in their tightening stance," DiMartino added.

A NH Journal poll of 729 registered voters, conducted this month, found that New Hampshire voters oppose the passage of the “Build Back Better” bill, 52% to 45%. In other questions, 70% of respondents also cited a belief that the country is on the wrong track, reflected in Biden’s 57% unfavorability rating in the state. In a news conference held this week to discuss Biden’s social spending plan, discussions on the connection between inflation and the Build Back Better spending bill led Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) to echo these concerns.

“My hope is that Sen. (Joe) Manchin (D-WV) will say, ‘Stop, shelve Build Back Better’ until we find better answers to where inflation is headed,” Graham said, according to C-SPAN.

A recent Morning Consult poll of nearly 2,000 registered voters found that among all respondents, 60% reported being “very concerned” about inflation, 27% are “somewhat concerned” and just 3% are “not concerned at all.” Of the responses, Republicans were most likely to be concerned, at 93%, but a significant 83% majority of Democrat voters also reported concern. 

These results appear to underscore a shift of blame for the crisis toward the Biden administration, with 62% of respondents stating the administration held some degree of responsibility, while just 11% said Biden’s policies were not at least partially responsible for the rising inflation. As a result, Biden’s approval rating fell to the lowest on record in the most recent left-leaning Morning Consult/Politico polling, with just 43% of Americans approving of the president and 53% disapproving.

This is underscored in a recent ABC News-Ipsos poll that found that 69% of Americans disapprove of how Biden has handled inflation. Along party lines, 94% of Republican voters disapproved while 54% of Democrats felt the same. Among independents, 71% stated they disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation, and 57% of all respondents expressed disapproval of Biden’s performance in economic recovery.