Peach Tree Times

As inflation booms across the country, Georgia residents have noticed inflationary pressure here at home. 

According to a report by CNBC, Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggests inflation surged 6.8% in November, the fastest rate since 1982. Trading Economics said this comes as the inflation rate in Georgia is expected to rise to 13.5% by the end of this quarter, up from 12.5% reported in November.

The producer price index for final demand also increased 9.6% over the previous year after rising another 0.8% in November, though FactSet reported that economists had been seeking an annual gain of 9.2%.

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

 In a tweet Dec. 10, Georgia lieutenant governor candidate Burt Jones responded to the numbers, calling out the country’s 39-year-high in price surges.

“(Inflation) is taxing Georgia working families across our state because of Joe Biden's disastrous policies,” Jones wrote in his tweet. 

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 Democratic voters also reported concern. 

Results suggest a shift of blame on the crisis toward the Biden administration, with 62% of all 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 thus far in his term in the most recent Morning Consult/Politico polling, with just 43% of respondents approving of the president and 53% disapproving.

This is underscored in a recent ABC News-Ipsos poll which found that 69% of respondents disapproved of how Biden has handled inflation. Disapproval came from 94% of Republican voters, with 54% of Democrats saying the same. Among independents, 71% said they disapprove of Biden’s handling and 57% of all respondents expressed disapproval of Biden’s performance on economic recovery.

Responding to the crisis, The Hill reported Biden recently stated that he thinks inflation is at “the peak” and that it will subside with the passage of his “Build Back Better” plan, though not everyone is on board. 

In a news conference held this week to discuss Biden’s social spending plan, the connection between inflation and the Democratic-sponsored Build Back Better spending bill led Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) to express hope that its passage is tabled. 

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