National debt ceiling 101: Is a crisis looming?

8. What's the public's view on the national debt and raising the ceiling?

Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor
Senator Alan Simpson (l.) and Erskine Bowles (r.), at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, DC on Nov. 19. Bowles and Simpson made a recommendation to President Obama's fiscal commission on the best way to slash federal deficits.

In a recent Ipsos/Reuters poll, 71 percent of Americans said Congress should not raise the ceiling.

That poll result hints at the heightened anxiety surrounding federal debt and deficits in the wake of the Great Recession. But other polls show little public willingness to bear the kind of spending cuts implied in a no-more-borrowing future.

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