Public Wants Compromise on Debt Limit, But Tea Party Divides Republicans on Making a Deal
A new Pew Research Center poll confirms what nearly all other surveys have shown — that most Americans want both parties to compromise on a deal to raise the debt ceiling — but the poll also illustrates the risk to Republicans posed by the hard-line being taken by those who are aligned with the tea party movement and their adamant opposition to anything that looks like a tax increase.
Sixty-eight percent of Americans overall want lawmakers to be willing to compromise compared to 23 percent who say they should “stand by their principles.” Many of the compromises that have been put forward have some combination of deep-spending cuts accompanied by tax increases (such as on corporations and the wealthy) and Pew found that support for that mix remained mostly steady at 60 percent.
A majority of Republicans overall (53 percent) favor compromise compared to 38 percent who don’t. But Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who embrace the tea party movement want lawmakers to stand by their principles and not compromise by a 53 percent to 42 percent margin. Those Republicans who don’t identify with the tea party movement favor compromise by 66 percent to 24 percent.
One way this may be playing out is the response to a question which asked which party was more extreme in the positions it took. Fifty percent said the Republicans were more extreme compared to 35 percent who pointed to the Democrats, with 2 percent answering “neither” and 13 percent undecided or answering “both.”
The Republicans hold a clear edge over Democrats when it comes to who the public thinks can do a better job of reducing the budget deficit, with 43 percent choosing the Republicans and 33 percent picking the Democrats. Nine percent said “neither” and 15 percent were undecided or answering “both.”.
Democrats came out ahead when Americans were asked which party was more concerned with the needs of people like themselves. Fifty-one percent named the Democrats and 30 percent picked the Republicans, with 11 percent answering “neither” and 8 percent either undecided or saying “both.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted overnight Monday (when President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner made prime time television appearances to argue their cases on the debt limit debate) found that 31 percent blamed Republican lawmakers most for the failure so far of negotiations, 21 percent blamed Obama, 9 percent blamed Democratic lawmakers and 24 percent put the burden on all three. Eight percent answered “none” and 6 percent were undecided. Independents mostly blamed all three with 35 percent holding that view, compared to 14 percent who blamed the Republicans, 16 percent who blamed Obama and 1 percent who blamed Democrats.
A plurality of independents (29 percent) also wanted to see Obama give the most ground in order to each a deal while another 18 percent wanted all three to give ground, and 13 percent wanted Republicans to do so with the remainder naming the Democrats, none or expressing no opinion. The public overall was divided on the question.
As with the Pew poll, Reuters/Ipsos found a majority (56 percent) in favor of a deal that included both spending cuts and tax increases.
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