That simple question looms as a decisive factor in next year's congressional ballot.

Inflation is now running at its highest in a generation, with a report Wednesday (Nov 10) showing that consumer prices surged at a 6.2 per cent annual pace in October.

Nearly all economic forecasters expect it to cool in the coming year, but the key question for President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats is how quickly and how much.

While Mr Biden argues that inflation will be pulled down by his forthcoming US$1.75 trillion (S$2.37 trillion) social-spending Bill, along with a US$550 billion infrastructure plan he will soon sign, Republicans are hammering exactly the opposite argument: cash drops by the government are driving up prices.

Even some Democrats are echoing GOP fiscal concerns, complicating the outlook for the pending legislative package.

At stake in how quickly inflation recedes, and in the debate over the cause and remedy of the escalation in prices, is control of Congress.

In next November's midterm elections, Democrats' razor-thin majorities of both chambers will be up for grabs. It's effectively the first national election where inflation will be a prime issue since Reagan's win over President Jimmy Carter.

"We've never recorded as many people talking about high home prices or high appliance prices or high TV prices," said Mr Richard Curtin, who oversees the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey, a key gauge of household attitudes. "We get a large share of people talking about the reduction of their living standards due to inflation," made worse because "consumers see no effective economic policies that would restrain inflation," he said.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview that aired Tuesday on National Public Radio's "Marketplace" that she expects inflation next year to be "closer to the 2% that we consider normal."