Friday, January 14, 2011

Scariest Damn Poll Ever

I mentioned the debt ceiling fight in March was going to be ugly, and I also mentioned that the powers that be would never allow the Tea Party to blow up the country's sovereign debt rating.  Apparently I severely underestimated the political angle on this, because people apparently want to really, really blow up the country's sovereign debt rating.

A new poll released on Wednesday found that most Americans oppose an increase in the debt ceiling, but at the same time support few potential cuts in the federal budget.

The Ipsos/Reuters poll found that 71% of those surveyed oppose increasing the debt limit. This was true even of the half sample who were told that "not raising the debt limit would damage the US' sovereign debt rating, which is like our credit rating: it would seriously damage our credibility abroad, would make it much more difficult for us to borrow in the future, and would likely push up interest rates."

Yeah, pause and reflect time. Even when told what would happen should we default on our debt as a country, still 71% of people want to detonate our economy.  That's not even close to debatable on this being an overwhelming majority.

If I'm a Republican, I'm doing everything I can to beat Dems over the head with this poll and demand the sun, moon, and the stars in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.  They'll do it, too.

March is going to be a titanic brawl in Congress.  I guarantee it.

[UPDATE]  Felix Salmon notes that if the ceiling isn't raised, default won't be instant, but cuts will need to be made.  Coordinating all those inlays and outlays is Tim Geithner's official job at Treasury:

But maybe the smartest thing for Geithner to do would simply be to stop paying the salaries of members of Congress and their staffs. It probably wouldn’t take long, in that event, for Congress to vote Obama the debt-ceiling raise he needs.

Now there's an idea.
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