Poll: 71% of Americans Oppose Increasing Debt Ceiling

Debate rages about whether Congress should approve an increase in the federal government’s $14.1 trillion debt ceiling this spring, as the Obama administration favors. It looks like a huge majority of citizens opposes an increase. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that 71 percent of Americans oppose lifting the debt limit, while only 18 percent support it, The Hill reports.

To be sure, if pollsters told respondents that failure to boost the ceiling would cause the government to default on its debt, possibly sparking a worldwide financial meltdown, the answers might change.

But the poll result “could embolden some Republican critics of an increase . . . and adds another layer of complexity to what is already shaping up to be one of the first major political disputes in the new Congress.”