To follow up on a CBS poll released Monday morning showing unhappiness with the GOP position, Pew has a pair of polls out reinforcing some key concepts about Washington and the debt ceiling crisis.
To set the stage, let me say I agree with these people:
But financial experts say hitting the debt ceiling or coming really close to it would destabilize the markets and the economy. Just how dire the consequences would be is difficult to predict, but many Americans could feel the impact almost immediately.
Pew poll July 2011
But
according to Pew, Republicans don't:
While administration officials project an economic catastrophe if the debt limit is not raised by Aug. 2, many Americans do not see this deadline as a major problem. Four-in-ten (40%) say that, from what they've read and heard, it is absolutely essential that the federal debt limit be raised by Aug. 2 to avoid an economic crisis, while about as many (39%) say the country can go past this date without major economic problems.
By a 53%-to-30% margin, most Republicans say that it will not be a major problem if the debt ceiling is not raised by Aug. 2. The balance of opinion is the reverse among Democrats: 56% say it is absolutely essential to meet that deadline to avoid an economic crisis, 28% say it is not. Independents are more divided, though a slim 43%-plurality say the country can go past Aug. 2 without major economic problems, while 32% say it is essential to raise the debt limit by this date.
Danial Patrick Moynahan used to say, "You can have your own opinion but you can't have your own facts." Apparently he was wrong. This set of alternate reality facts has driven DC politics for months now. But as this op-ed in
The Guardian notes, it's getting hard to ignore reality when it starts biting you in the face:
Pew/WaPo poll June 2011
As the US nears the brink, the budget row is exposing Republican madness
It is economically not feasible to cut the deficit without raising taxes. But as Reagan's presumptive heirs resist, default looms
In
a second Pew poll (in association with the
Washington Post):
The public expresses far more confidence in President Obama than it does in congressional leaders of both parties when it comes to the debate over the debt ceiling. Nonetheless, only about half of Americans (48%) have even a fair amount of confidence in Obama to do the right thing when it comes to dealing with the debt ceiling, while nearly as many (49%) say they have not too much confidence or no confidence at all in the president on this issue.
One can only assume that if more people saw the debt ceiling discussion as a crisis with dire consequences, there'd be more support for raising it. Blame partisan Republicans for playing with disaster for political reasons. It's their own rhetoric that's backed themselves into a corner, and it's why it's taking them so long to reverse course.
This is really a no-winner situation politically, but that doesn't mean there aren't political losers. And in this case, those political losers happen to be Republicans.