PHX Reporter

According to an NBC News poll, 38% of Americans of each economic class blame President Joe Biden for the country's inflation and rising prices, while 28% blame the COVID-19 pandemic.

The poll, which asked voters, "Who or what do you blame the most for the rising cost of goods and services, or inflation?" resulted in 38% of voters blaming Biden, 23% blamed corporations and 6% blamed Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tweeted, “Mr. President, You can't spend America out of an inflation crisis” on March 30.

Of the 38% who blame Biden, 37% of those classified themselves as part of the poor and/or working class, 39% said they were middle class and 39% said they were “upper class.” The poll was done March 18-22 in partnership with Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies. The poll surveyed 1,000 adults, 790 of whom were registered voters.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported March 10 that the Consumer Price Index for the 12 months ending in February 2022 showed a 7.9% increase, a 40-year high.

Biden said March 14 that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the COVID-19 pandemic were to blame for record-high inflation in the United States. He also said rising prices had "nothing to do" with his administration’s policies. 

"We know that families are still struggling with higher prices," Biden said, according to a story by Fox News. "Let's be absolutely clear about why prices are high now or high for two reasons."

The first, he said, is due to "the way the global economy works."

"A factory in Taiwan that makes computer chips shuts down to a COVID outbreak. It causes a ripple effect to slow down auto-manufacturing," Biden said. "So, because of the pandemic, we had significant disruptions in the supply chain, and our supply chain is so important with so many materials that come from other places."

Biden also said "inflation is largely the fault of Putin."

Over the past two months in Phoenix, prices have risen 2.1% and are up 10.9% from last year. Food prices alone have increased 3.2% over the past two months and 8.2% over the year, according to BLS data.