WASHINGTON — Karen Downing, a U.S. Navy retiree living on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, voted for Joe Biden in November 2020 — expecting the new president to end the COVID-19 crisis and then pivot to tackling broader and long-standing social ills, like alleviating student loan debt and increasing access to mental health services.
Downing, 58, says she figured that Biden’s presidency would be “an uphill battle on how to bring the country together, knowing that change takes time.” She was a huge supporter of his sweeping "Build Back Better" social spending package, believing it would address entrenched socioeconomic problems.
But the precipitous rise in inflation to the highest rates in four decades — even before the Russia-Ukraine crisis, which risks further boosting energy costs — has taken her aback. She found herself earlier this month worrying how a family-pack of chicken wings before the Super Bowl became so costly.
