Poll: Support for debt ceiling increase doubles, plurality says severe economic downturn likely

[jefferson_dem]

Poll: Support for debt ceiling increase doubles
By Brian Montopoli Topics Economy ,Polling .2 Comments

Americans are now roughly split on raising the debt ceiling, a new CBS News poll shows, with support for an increase nearly doubling since last month.

The spike in support for an increase follows dire warnings from the Obama administration and many economists concerning the consequences of lack of action. They have warned of a possible U.S. default on its obligations, a stock market crash, an increase in interest rates and a halt in Social Security payments and other obligations.

Some Republicans, among them presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, have deemed such warnings "scare tactics." But the warnings -- and the increased media coverage of the issue -- seem to have prompted many Americans to move from opposing an increase to backing one.

Support for increasing the debt ceiling has risen 22 points from last month, from 24 percent to 46 percent. Opposition has fallen 20 points in that period, from 69 percent to 49 percent. (See graphic at left.)



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[TheWraith]

1. Obama throwing an elbow really worked. nt

[Dawson Leery]

2. The debt ceiling better be raised.

[dallasknight]

4. debt ceiling

I own a business and my wife runs the household. She runs the
house within a certain amount of the budget, I run my business
within a certain budget, so its really hard for me to
understand why the government would want to spend more than
their income. Sounds economically unstable to always live
above your means.

[The Big Vetolski]

5. The government is neither a household nor a business, and should

not be treated as such. Any more than your household should be run like a government. You don't let your kids vote on household policy, do you? And I'm pretty damned sure you don't let your employees determine how your business spends money, either, do you?

[Qutzupalotl]

7. We had a surplus in 2000.

Then someone told Bush he could start two open-ended wars while cutting taxes, because as Cheney put it, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter."

[tanyev]

9. That's why we need to let the Bush tax cuts expire.

I'm sure you agree.

[quaker bill]

10. For you, it is

but then you don't own and issue the currency. It is economically unstable to always live above your means, but people deficit finance all the time. This is how homes and cars are bought by most folks. Perhaps you waited and saved up all the money before you bought a house, but I would bet you took out a mortgage. This is deficit financing on a personal scale. To most folks it makes sense to buy a house when they first start having kids, so they borrow against future earnings.

Wake up.

[Peacetrain]

11. you refuse to pay your bills? that is what this is about..a bill we already owe

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. Is the president's message breaking the M$M noise machine?

Let's hope. Rec.

[The Big Vetolski]

6. The constant drumbeat of warnings that there will be catastrophe

for everybody if the debt ceiling isn't raised are obviously working. Just like TARP. If the debt ceiling isn't raised, the most that would happen to most people are higher interest rates. Sure, the stock and bond markets would crash. Good! About time the rich felt our pain.

That said, the debt ceiling always was and is a farce. It should never have existed and should be abolished. Does not the 14th Amendment declare that no one, not even corporations and ratings agencies, can question the full faith and credit of the United States Government? Yeah. It DOES say that.

All that's going on now is that politicians bought and paid for by the wealthy are using this manufactured crisis to loot the public assets of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and probably a bunch of other things as well. This isn't democracy, it's kleptocracy.

[applegrove]

8. The teabaggers really deserve a second recession and economic calamity. Too bad we liberals

couldn't separate our economy from theirs like the rich have unhooked their economic welbeing from the unemployed. It would serve those tea baggers right.