Democrats and Republicans are both mistaken in believing they have public support in the debt fight.

The Political Standoff Over Raising the Federal Debt Ceiling

The political standoff over raising the federal debt ceiling has been ongoing for four months, and the country is now just four weeks away from defaulting on its financial obligations. As the impasse has become an exercise in political brinksmanship, both Republicans and Democrats appear to be betting that public opinion is on their side.

They’re both right and both wrong, according to recent public opinion polls.

Public Opinion Polls

While the public has strong and sometimes contradictory opinions about the debt ceiling and federal spending, the overwhelming majority of Americans believe the parties should negotiate, compromise, and raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default.

If they do not, the data suggest there will be more than enough blame to go around.

The Standoff

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have been at odds over the debt ceiling since January when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the nation was close to its statutory borrowing ceiling.

The limit, imposed by Congress, restricts the total amount of debt the government can hold at any one time. Since the United States usually operates on a deficit budget, borrowing is needed both to fund ongoing operations and pay interest on the national debt of $31.4 trillion.

When nearing the debt ceiling, Congress usually raises the cap without a fuss. But in recent years, the occasion has been used as an opportunity for the party controlling Congress to extract either spending cuts or spending increases from the other side.

When that occurs, it raises the possibility that the government might have to slow bill payments or miss some altogether. That could take place as soon as June 1, according to Yellen.

Just Fix It

McCarthy said the American people want to see negotiation and compromise. “Even Democrats on the left side of the aisle say the president needs to sit down and negotiate,” he told reporters on April 26. “More than 70 percent of Americans think we should sit down and negotiate.”

For his part, Biden maintained that America cannot default on its debts, no matter what, so the ceiling should be lifted immediately.

The American people agree with both.

Some 70 percent of the people, including most Republicans, said they want their representatives to compromise and find solutions to the problem, according to a February poll conducted by NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Marist.

An April poll by Echelon Insights showed that 74 percent of voters, including a majority of Democrats, agreed with the statement that “President Biden should agree to negotiations and try to find common ground around the debt ceiling, including some reductions in government spending.”

Perhaps most telling, 70 percent of respondents said that Congress should raise the debt ceiling if necessary to avoid a default, according to an April poll by CBS.

When the question was presented without mentioning the possibility of default, only 46 percent said the debt ceiling should be raised.

Cuts Yes, Mine No

Most Americans, 60 percent, think the government spends too much money, according to a poll conducted by the Associated Press and NORC in March.

The percentage of people who think Washington spends too much was highest among Republicans at 88 percent. Some 60 percent of independents thought so, while just 34 percent of Democrats said the government is overspending.

However, when asked to judge the appropriate level of government outlays in specific areas, the same respondents identified only one out of 16 categories in which the government spends too much: assistance to other countries. Over two-thirds of respondents said the level was too high.

For each of the remaining categories, a large majority of respondents said the level of spending is either “too little” or “about right.”

A majority said the government spends too little on education, health care, Social Security, Infrastructure, assistance to the poor, Medicare, border security, assistance for child care, and drug rehabilitation.

A poll conducted by Pew Research in 2019 returned nearly identical findings.

So while a clear majority of Americans believe the government spends too much overall, there is little agreement on where to make spending cuts.

Plenty of Blame “Defaulting on our debt is not an option,” McCarthy said at the outset of the debt standoff. He has consistently maintained that Republicans will not allow the country to skip a payment. He has said that point of the exercise is to force a discussion on what should come first, raising the debt ceiling or an agreement on spending cuts.