aargh

[rivkat]

"Fifty-five percent in the CBS/New York Times poll said the debt ceiling should only be raised if spending cuts are also enacted. Another 24 percent didn't want it raised at all. That means 79 percent of Americans disagree with the president who wants the debt ceiling raised without conditions."  Um, no.  It means that at least 24% were drunk at the time of the survey, as Caitlin Moran says.  On which already incurred obligations do these 24% of respondents propose to default?  And I'm not so sure about that 55% either: do they want Social Security cut?  I presume they believe that 10% of our budget goes to foreign aid, or maybe the CDC.  That result means, don't ask survey questions that your audience doesn't understand.

Of course, with this as the "narrative," G-d only knows where we'll end up.

Comments

[saraht]

I feel like I'm reaching some tipping point where I cannot even deal with my fellow-citizens. There's principled disagreement on difficult issues and then there's HI YOU ARE FUCKING INSANE DO YOU THINK THE WORLD RUNS ON FAIRIES

[neotoma]

I think it means that 79% of the respondents haven't been paying enough attention to the issue to explain it adequately, because we've already cut spending with the sequester and it has damaged the economy, not helped it.

[jadelennox]

Yeah, I'd love a survey -- of the citizenry, and of members of the house -- to find out what percentage of each can answer, say, three basic questions on the meaning of the debt limit. I probably couldn't, and I am a pretty well read monkey.

[ratcreature]

The people asked probably thought that your "debt ceiling" means raising the limit on future spending in coming budgets, not about being able to pay for the current budget. They implemented something like that here, called "debt break", limiting the amount of debt the government is allowed to take on in its budget in the name of austerity worship or something. But I'm still baffled how your congress can agree on spending, then refuse the necessary debt for that spending. I mean, shouldn't they have made their final stance on passing the budget then? That this is two votes to begin with is so idiotic that it is no wonder responses are odd. OTOH because it's weird the media have been explaining it a lot, even here, so how they missed all the explanations is strange in itself.