Don't count on the public punishing repubs and sparing dems
If you think that this crisis will be the end of repubs and will spell doom for a republican held House or mean they can't take over the senate next year, you're a hopeful sort.
the American public is not terribly well informed. You want to blame that on the MSM? Fine, but the American public has always been pretty stupid and ill informed.
Polls indicate that yes, repubs get more of the blame but by no means all of it. President Obama should, by all that's fair, be getting higher marks from the public than he is getting. Boehner and Reid have the same dismal approval rating. Gerrymandered districts aren't magically going to ungerrymander themselves and no matter how you look at it, the repubs have a big advantage when it comes to next year's senate elections.
Then there's this:
Raise the debt ceiling? Not without progress on deficits, US public says.
Some 57 percent of Americans oppose legislation that would raise the debt ceiling with no conditions attached, according to a new Christian Science Monitor/TIPP survey.
In a new Christian Science Monitor/TIPP survey of public opinion, only 38 percent of Americans voice support for “legislation to raise the debt ceiling” without any conditions attached.
Some 57 percent say they oppose such legislation.
But when asked if they’d allow more federal borrowing if the legislation included a commitment not to raise government spending, Americans in the poll would support the measure by a narrow 50 to 46 percent margin.
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Perhaps the big point to emerge from polling about the debt limit, though, is that the American public cares about getting the nation’s fiscal house in order. And they want to see the two sides try to work together.
The Monitor/TIPP poll, conducted from Sept. 28 through Oct. 2, found a 56 percent majority saying Mr. Obama should negotiate with Congress over the shape of legislation to raise the borrowing cap. Conversely, 41 percent agreed with the president’s stated position that he will not negotiate over the issue – because the goal is simply “to allow the Treasury to pay the bills for the money that Congress has already spent.”
In another new poll, by CBS News, almost 8 in 10 respondents say the parties in Washington should “compromise” rather than “stick to their positions.”
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/1004/Raise-the-debt-ceiling-Not-without-progress-on-deficits-US-public-says
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