NE Valley Times

A recent national poll has revealed more than half of Americans believe President Joe Biden has done a poor job with inflation, and Arizona's senators could be partially to blame by supporting passage of Biden's COVID-19 relief package in March 2021.

The poll, which was distributed by the Senate Opportunity Fund (SOF), found 6 in 10 respondents blamed Biden for the country's ongoing inflation problem. 

When asked about their opinion on the job the president has done with regard to inflation, 60% of poll participants said Biden had done a poor job, 35% believed he'd done a good job, and 5% had no opinion whatsoever. Respondents also noted the higher cost of food was their biggest concern. 

800 people from across the country who are likely to vote in a general election participated in the poll, which was conducted from March 15-17 of this year. 

Inflation is at a 40-year high, registering at 7.9%; a report from Trading Economics said.

Gasoline is a leading force behind consumer inflation, and the most recent Gas Misery Index estimated that the average American will pay $667 more for gasoline this year than in 2021, a Metro Business Daily report said. 

Big government spending during the pandemic was the main catalyst for the nation's inflation when compared to other developed nations, four researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) reported.

"Fiscal support measures designed to counteract the severity of the pandemic's economic effect may have contributed to this divergence by raising inflation about 3 percentage points by the end of 2021," Òscar Jordà, Celeste Liu, Fernanda Nechio and Fabián Rivera-Reyes said in a recent FRBSF Economic Letter. 

Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly and their Democratic colleagues voted to approve the president's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package last year, a report from AZ Central said.