Voters head to the polls as painfully high inflation weighs on Americans
Focus on inflation in midterms could prove detrimental to Democrats
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FOX Business host Stuart Varney speaks to a voter panel about key issues impacting their decisions at polling booths.
The highest inflation in four decades is looming over voters as they head to the polls for the 2022 midterm elections, with pocketbook issues playing a pivotal role in which party winds up with control of Congress.
The focus on stubbornly high consumer prices — and an economy that is likely headed toward a recession this year or next — could ring alarm bells for Democrats, who are widely expected to lose their razor-thin majority in the House and possibly the Senate after Tuesday's elections.
More than half of registered voters identified economic issues as their single most important issue, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll, with 28% citing the economy and 22% pointing to scorching-hot inflation. Among Republicans, the percentage was even higher, with 73% naming one of the two as their top concern. Democrats, however, identified abortion rights as their No. 1 concern (29%), closely followed by the economy or inflation (28%).
A separate survey from Gallup showed that 49% of voters said the economy is an extremely important issue to them — notably outranking abortion, crime and relations with Russia.
"The bottom line is voters are feeling the pain, and economists keep debating whether we're in a recession or not, which is sort of misleading," Tomas Philipson, a University of Chicago economist and former White House Council of Economic Advisers chair, recently told FOX Business. "What really matters is people's real income — how much they can buy for their paycheck."
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Voters fill out their ballots before bringing them to counting machines at a polling site in the Brooklyn Museum as the doors open for the midterm election, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. ((AP Photo/John Minchillo) / AP Newsroom)
Republicans have repeatedly slammed President Biden and Democrats for policies that they argue have exacerbated the inflation crisis, including a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package passed in March 2021, the health care and climate spending bill passed over the summer and most recently the broad forgiveness of billions in student loan debt.
In turn, the president has blamed higher prices on greedy corporations, supply chain bottlenecks and other pandemic-induced disruptions in the economy, as well as the Russian war in Ukraine.
Most economists now agree that unprecedented levels of government stimulus and a stronger-than-expected recovery from the pandemic have also played at least some role in worsening the price spike.
The White House has also tried to find the silver lining in the current state of the U.S. economy, highlighting record-low unemployment, positive economic growth in the third quarter and the slow deceleration in inflation.
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"I think that what's driving a different [tone] between how the White House talks about the economy," Philipson said. "They want to talk about how good the job market is. It's just not in tune with how voters are feeling. That sort of messaging by the White House, which is completely out of touch with what people are experiencing, is driving the frustration."
Shoppers walk through the milk and cream section of a supermarket in Montebello, California, on August 23, 2022. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) ((Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
The government reported in October that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods that includes gasoline, groceries and rents, rose 0.4% in September from the previous month. Prices climbed 8.2% on an annual basis. Those figures were both higher than expected.
In an even more concerning development that suggests underlying inflationary pressures in the economy remain strong, core prices — which strip out the more volatile measurements of food and energy — climbed 0.6% in September from the previous month. From the same time last year, core prices jumped 6.6%, the fastest since 1982.
High inflation has created severe financial pressures for most U.S. households, which are forced to pay more for everyday necessities like food and rent. The burden is disproportionately borne by low-income Americans, whose already stretched paychecks are heavily affected by price fluctuations.
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When factoring in inflation, average hourly earnings for all employees actually declined 3% in September from the same month a year ago when factoring in the impact of rising consumer prices. On a monthly basis, average hourly earnings dropped 0.1% last month when accounting for the inflation spike.