The House is currently debating a continuing resolution to fund the government past September 30th, and the Republicans are threatening to shut down the government unless all funding for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is deleted from that budget resolution. But even if the Republicans back down on this and allow the government to continue to operate, that won't mean the current game of "chicken" between the parties will be over.That's because the national debt will reach its authorized ceiling in October (sometime between the middle and end of that month). Unless that ceiling is raised, the U.S. government may again face a threat of being shut down. The last time this happened it was only for a very short time, but that was enough to hurt the credit rating of the U.S. government (costing the government millions more in interest rates). And the Republicans are once again opposing the raising of the debt ceiling -- at least until they get some more cuts in federal spending (which will probably be another demand to defund Obamacare).
Now any sane American knows that the Democrats and the president will never defund or repeal Obamacare (which is the signature piece of legislation for this administration, and while far from perfect, does make many badly needed improvements in health care). This could make a person wonder -- if the Republicans know that refusing to raise the debt ceiling will not just hurt the government's credit rating and cause it to default on its loans (most of which are held by American citizens), but will also seriously damage the economy of this country, why would they do that?
Well, a new poll answers that question. It is the ABC News-Washington Post Poll, taken between September 12th and 16th of 1,004 nationwide adults (with a 4 point margin of error). That poll shows that those congressional Republicans are just following the wishes of their base -- who are willing to knowingly cause serious damage to the economy, just because they either hate the president or support an ultra-right-wing ideology regardless of the consequences to the country.
The charts above were made from information in the survey. Note that 73% of the general public knows that refusing to raise the debt ceiling will cause serious damage to the economy, and 67% of Republicans also believe this. But most of those Republicans just don't care. While 54% of the general public that believes it will cause serious damage would support raising the debt ceiling, that is not true among Republicans. Of those who admit that serious economic damage would be done, about 53% still don't want the debt ceiling raised.
It is a sad commentary on the Republican Party that so many of them are willing to trash the economy just to get their way. It just shows how extreme (and out of the mainstream) that party has become -- and why it needs to be voted out of power for the good of the country.
