Voters blame businesses more than Biden for sticky inflation

• A recent poll found that most survey respondents blame price increases over the last six months on "large corporations taking advantage of inflation" rather than Democratic policies.
• Biden has been fighting to convince voters that stubbornly high inflation is the fault of corporations, not his economic policies.
• Consumer confidence has seen a record upswing in recent months, though inflation still ticked higher in February, according to the latest consumer price index.

President Joe Biden is starting to win the inflation blame game against corporations.

A recent Financial Times-Michigan Ross online poll found that 63% of survey respondents blame price increases over the last six months on "large corporations taking advantage of inflation," up from 54% in November. Meanwhile, 38% of respondents attributed the price increases to Democratic policies, unchanged from November.

A 59% majority still disapproved of Biden's handling of the economy, down only slightly from 61% in November, the poll showed. The poll, taken between Feb. 29 and March 4, surveyed 1,010 registered voters with a margin of error of +/-3.1%.

Still, voters' growing frustration with businesses is a relief for the White House and Biden's reelection campaign.

Both have been slogging through an uphill battle to convince Americans that stubbornly high inflation is the fault of corporations, not Bidenomics.

"Too many corporations raise their prices to pad their profits, charging you more and more for less and less," Biden said Thursday in his State of the Union address. "That's why we're cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging or deceptive pricing from food to health care to housing."

The consumer price index released Tuesday found that