Only 18% Support Raising the Debt Ceiling

This is interesting:

Some 71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority, the focus of a brewing political battle over federal spending. Only 18 percent support an increase.

The poll underscores the tough task ahead for U.S. lawmakers as the debt nears its current ceiling of $14.3 trillion. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week warned that a failure to raise the borrowing limit in the coming months could lead to “catastrophic economic consequences”.

Republicans, who won control of the House of Representatives in November on a promise to scale back government, hope to pair any debt-ceiling hike with a commitment from President Barack Obama to reduce long-term spending.

This tells me that the arguments during the last election against increasing spending and borrowing resonated with a lot of people, but I'm not sure whether they understand what will happen should the debt ceiling not be raised. The government will have to live within its means, and that's a good thing, but we probably won't be able to pay a lot of bills and no small amount of chaos will erupt.  Massive cuts would have to take place immediately, and the risk of default and global economic collapse would be very high.

I'm not sure a cold turkey approach is the smartest thing to do.  I'd love to see spending reined in and wasteful programs cut, and now that I think of it a bit forcing their hand with the debt ceiling might be the only way make that happen.

This is all probably academic because it's unlikely a new debt ceiling bill won't be passed.