Politicopedia: A Simple Breakdown of the Issues: Washington Post Poll: 8 in 10 Tea Party Supporters Say They Understand Consequences of Not Raising Debt Ceiling

New polling from the Washington Post seems to show that those who affiliate themselves with the tea party believe that they better understand the current debt ceiling discussions compared to the general public. Moreover, the new poll highlights Speaker Boehner's problems in corralling the tea party-backed candidates when it comes to a final vote on raising the debt ceiling. According to the Post,

The data suggests that those who identify as Republicans who are supportive of the tea party not only view themselves as far more educated than the average person on the current debt debate, but are also far more worried about the impact if the debt limit is increased.

More than eight in 10 tea party supporters (81 percent) said they understand “what would happen if the government does not raise the federal debt limit” — far more than the 55 percent of all respondents who said the same thing. [Washington Post, 7/12/2011]

As a reminder, these are the same tea party supporters who elected tea-party conservatives to Congress who are now stalling any form of debt ceiling deal due to the White House's demands that a number of different tax loopholes be eliminated, despite being offered trillions of dollars in cuts over the next decade. While those numbers are disheartening, the poll had some even more scary results:

Three quarters of tea party supporters said that they were more concerned that raising the debt ceiling would “lead to higher government spending and make the national debt bigger,” while just 19 percent said they were more worried that “not raising the debt limit would force the government into default and hurt the nation’s economy.”

That stands in stark contrast to all Americans in the poll, 47 percent of whom said raising the debt limit was a bigger concern while 42 percent said not raising it was the bigger worry. [Washington Post, 7/12/2011]

And other polling shows the same discouraging results. Despite President Obama’s claims that the American public agrees with him on the need to raise the debt ceiling, according to a recent Gallup poll,

53 percent of people who say they’re following the debt limit debate very closely said they want their member of Congress to vote against raising it. Just 37 percent said they wanted a vote to increase it.

And just 34 percent of those who say they’re following the debate told Gallup they think not raising the limit would result in an economic crisis. [Politico, 7/13/2011]

The ramifications of this most recent round of polling are legitimately terrifying. Just to break this down even more: Doesn’t it seem a little bit strange how 8 to 10 tea party supporters say they understand the consequences of not raising debt ceiling (default and/or a potentially catastrophic economic collapse never before seen) and yet 75% of them also say that they are more concerned about whether or not government spending will increase if the debt ceiling is raised than whether or not the country will default on its debt? These seem like competing interests to me.

The one bit of good news in all of this? That 53% of Americans polled say they are paying close attention to the debate. All in all, however, these poll numbers are enough to make anyone in the US government squeamish. While I understand that representatives are elected to be the voice of their constituents, if there was ever a time when members of Congress should stand up not for what the polls say but for what’s right for the nation, this would be that time. The fate of this country depends on their true understand of the economic quagmire that this country would be in if the debt ceiling is not raised.

If those in Congress opposed to voting for a debt ceiling increase truly believe in the rhetoric they campaigned on, that America is the greatest nation on the face of the earth, they will make sure to vote to keep it that way, however unpopular that vote may be.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Washington Post Poll: 8 in 10 Tea Party Supporters Say They Understand Consequences of Not Raising Debt Ceiling