Gallup finds the margin against a rise in the debt ceiling falling from 28 points to 20 points. Most of the shift comes from Democrats, who’ve moved from a 7-point margin of support for the rise to a 18-point margin – as the fight’s become more partisan, they’ve engaged and supported the president.
But the question is asked in a pretty useless way.
Would you want your member to vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling, vote against raising the debt ceiling, or don’t you know enough to say?
A clean debt ceiling vote isn’t even being discussed! The choices right now are a debt ceiling increase with spending cuts, a debt ceiling increase with tax increases, a debt ceiling increase with entitlement cuts, a weird punt over to the president, and default. When’s the last time an issue this big was so poorly explained to Americans? Republicans clutched pearls yesterday after the president warned that Social Security checks wouldn’t go out if the debt ceiling wasn’t hit – something Pat Toomey disagrees with and Treasury agrees with – so obviously there’s been an opportunity for weeks for the administration to explain/demagogue this.
