Some 71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority, the focus of a brewing political battle over federal spending. Only 18 percent support an increase.
The poll underscores the tough task ahead for U.S. lawmakers as the debt nears its current ceiling of $14.3 trillion. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week warned that a failure to raise the borrowing limit in the coming months could lead to “catastrophic economic consequences.”
Brian Riedl, the lead budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the poll findings put “a lot more pressure on those who want to raise the debt limit to make a convincing argument to a very skeptical public.”
Republicans, who won control of the House of Representatives in November on a promise to scale back government, hope to pair any debt-ceiling hike with a commitment from President Barack Obama to reduce long-term spending.
Republicans have vowed to slash $60 billion from the budget as soon as March, but many of those cuts are not likely to be popular with the public.
The United States posted an $80 billion budget deficit in December. The government has now posted a budget deficit for 27 straight months, the longest streak on record.
A deal to extend tax cuts this year that was approved by Congress in December is expected to put a hole of more than $800 billion in the deficit over the next decade.
Obama wants broader tax reforms although it will be hard to get them through a divided Congress in the next two years. His administration is exploring ways to boost tax incentives for corporate investments, Geithner said.
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Congress needs to start cutting the budget by cutting it’s own ‘entitlement’ program. Public servants should have to plan and save for their own retirement like the rest of us do. Likewise, they should have to pay for their health insurance as we do. ALL ENTITLEMENT programs need to be cut, but the best place to start is congress. This way will will truly attract people who want to ‘serve’ their country and countrymen …… not just themselves.
I totally agree with Karen. Why do the American people have to carry the burden of the debt while congress not only gets off, but gets amazing fringe benefits. Where else can you work for four years and retire at full pay?? It’s time to cut down the size of the government – and I’m not talking about our military.
They should put the whole bunch in jail. The president, congress, and senate for keeping on spending. We have a president that probably never in his life had to balance a simple family budget let alone a budget for a nation. Every one in the house and senate including the presidents’ family don’t know how to economize and think all the money is theirs. They are all just living on the rest of the nation.
I agree with both Karen and Delores. However, they aren’t going to go to jail and they aren’t going to cut their own benefits. It also isn’t likely that Congress will CUT all entitlement programs, but it’s probably a good thing for them freeze the benefits in place, as they’ve done for the past two years. I say this as a military retiree who also benefits from Medicare and Social Security. The Congress MUST control spending but they can’t back away from mandatory spending (i.e., entitlements). The problem could have been lessened years ago if they had permitted partial privatization of Social Security contributions (i.e., allowing workers to invest at least a portion of their SS payment into the private sector stock market).
Is anyone keeping track of how much Obama has been spending on himself and his family, including the somewhat excessive personal vacation trips and the somewhat heavy personal staff support that Michelle seems to require?