Public strongly opposes debt level increase: Reuters/Ipsos poll

[bemildred]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - The U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes raising the country's debt limit even though failure to do so could hurt America's international standing and push up borrowing costs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.

Some 71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority, the focus of a brewing political battle over federal spending. Only 18 percent support an increase.

The poll underscores the tough task ahead for U.S. lawmakers as the debt nears its current ceiling of $14.3 trillion. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week warned that a failure to raise the borrowing limit in the coming months could lead to "catastrophic economic consequences."

Brian Riedl, the lead budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the poll findings put "a lot more pressure on those who want to raise the debt limit to make a convincing argument to a very skeptical public."



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70B52I20110112

[aquart]

1. They have no clue what it means. None. Nada.

[Lucky Luciano]

18. Not one fucking clue indeed. nt

[Lucky Luciano]

19. Not one fucking clue indeed. nt

[Lucky Luciano]

20. Not one fucking clue indeed. nt

[RKP5637]

21. So true, they think the gov. operates similar to their personal checking account. Ignorance

is overwhelming in the US and bliss for those that want to control the masses.

One of the greatest problems I see in the US is when one doesn't know something they don't even bother to research anything. Many grab the nearest RW talking points as the gospel truth. It's disgusting and dangerous for the future of the US. Very sad.

[Skink]

2. doesn't everybody like it when there credit lines are raised?

[humbled_opinion]

14. LOL

You mean your maxed out credit card.... and the answer is no the irresponsible children should have their credit card removed until they show restraint.... Whaddya want the country to collapse or somethin?

[glinda]

3. Yes. I would like to see a title correction such as "Public doesn't understand what

a debt limit is and what consequences that has for the Nation". Do you think anyone will ever actually ask the right questions?

[mvd]

13. The media doesn't often dig that deep

And that adds to why so many voters are so uneducated as to what is really going on. They just think debt=bad. But they also aren't told in the question that the country running properly depends on it.

[glinda]

33. Way beyond time to have a public way to educate people. Then they wouldn't be

making such stupid decisions.

[hay rick]

16. And correction number two-

The public doesn't really CARE about the debt limit. Virtually all those people who say they oppose raising the debt limit in the poll will YAWN if, in fact, the debt limit is raised.

[rurallib]

4. Maybe if they were asked:

1) Do you want the US to default on its debt and cause the most massive economic collapse ever?

OR

2) Should the US immediately slash Social Security, Medicare and education funds so they do not default on their debt?

OR

3) Should the US raise its debt limit?

Maybe the results would be different.

[emulatorloo]

5. And somebody definitely needs to be asking the question that way.

[Dokkie]

24. How about the US

cut their bloated military budget instead of defaulting? and if the military budget is not enough, cut other spending. If i remeber correctly, Obama voted against raising the dept limit during the run in the US senate. I think am with senator Obama on this.

What good is a dept limit if we just keep raising it every time we ran up our credit limit?

[on point]

27. Need another option: OR Increase tax rates on rich?

We should consider restoring the tax rates to the 50, 60, 70 or even 90% rates on the rich that we used to have after world war iI.

The rich weren't happy with the Clinton rates which provided a tax surplus and was in the process of paying DOWN the national debt to the point of elimination. Instead they wanted it even lower and ran up the debt, and then didn't pay for an unneeded war on top of that.

I think they blew it. We should restore VERY high tax rates on the wealthy until we pay down THEIR debt. Let's go back to Eisenhower 90%, or Kennedy 70% until the debt is paid down and we go down again to Clinton 45%.

[robcon]

31. Wrong questions

1) Do you want the US to default on its debt and cause the most massive economic collapse ever?

OR

2) Should the US immediately slash military spending so they do not default on their debt?

OR

3) Should the US raise its debt limit?

I think #2 is the best course.

[Bandit]

32. How about one question be cut Defense Spending by 25%

Or better yet by fifty percent and still be spending more than we did under Clinton, and most of the rest of the world combined.

[jmowreader]

34. I'm afraid the majority would pick B

Especially if they run one of those polls that only calls landlines. Which means the only people who are going to pick the phone up are teabaggers who would like to help skew the poll.

[bullwinkle428]

6. A sad commentary on our poor educational priorities.

[Unvanguard]

7. A good reason not to govern by poll.

:shrug:

[Dokkie]

25. Ofc we never govern by polls

if we did, we would have passed a single payer, never passes the TARP and the wars would have ended 6yrs ago. Ignore those ignorant Americans, those fools probably needs their voting privileges revoked.

[Unvanguard]

29. No, they should keep their voting privileges.

That will enable them to throw out any government stupid enough to not raise the debt ceiling and destroy the economy in the process.

That's how representative democracy works. People don't have the detailed, specific knowledge necessary to make it work differently.

[Dokkie]

30. That makes sense

the voting public cannot comprehend the complexities involves with credit and debit of their country but they can vote for political overlords who cannot comprehend the meaning of words. Words so simple as limit. If they cannot find programs (military, farm subsidies, tax breaks to wall street) then I say we let them all default.

What does it say about a country that needs to borrow more money everytime the bill (interest of the humongous debt) is due, if we continue like this, it would just be harder and harder for us to pay it off. Theres a reason why they call it a limit and that reason is for govt to prepare for and not exceed that point. Its time for Obama to govern and make some tough decision instead of taking the easy way out.

[beyurslf]

8. NPR did a segment on this last week, and the conservative side said there would

be no way the Republicans would not increase it because leadership knows how damaging it would be. But, he went on to say, that the GOP leadership needed to get this argument under control because he sensed the public was taking the side of those who didn't want to increase the limit and if that notion caught fire, we would all be in big trouble.

[bullwinkle428]

26. The Repukes will vote to raise it along with the Democrats,

then run against it in 2012, just like the Wall Street bailout.

[beyurslf]

28. True. They will vote to raise it, blame the Dems, we will stand around like helpless wimps.

Then we will get blamed for it all. Sounds about right.

[Lint Head]

9. Most people do not understand finance.

[jwirr]

10. It won't take the public long to change their mind when grandma and

grandpa move in with them because they did not get their social security checks.

[IamK]

12. It might be a good time to change the locks....

[jwirr]

15. LOL I'm one of those grandmas.

[RKP5637]

17. And they can also pay all of their health care costs. I would say the children should

expect to shell out about $5k to $6k per month to take care of grandma and grandpa living expenses plus medical. Plus. My mother had to go into a nursing home and that was $27k per year, so for two, maybe they should figure on about $54k per year plus the other. I think most citizens would sign up for that quickly to keep the debt ceiling flat.

[defendandprotect]

11. W doubled the MIC ... which was already 5X what it shoudl be ... cut the MIC .... in fact,

we can save an immediate 28% on MIC by simply merging the services which every

other nation has done.

[valerief]

22. Whaaaaaat? What was the question? Would you like to be kicked in

the head? Answer: No!!!! Poll spin: Americans don't want debt level increased.

That's how I think these polls work.

[neverforget]

23. See what happens with bumper sticker sound bytes? Bad policy