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Dayton Business Journal...
Poll:
Low marks for politicians in
debt ceiling dispute
by Joe Cogliano, DBJ Senior Reporter
Friday, July 1, 2011
As
Republicans and Democrats battle
over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, and whether to work through the
Fourth
of July holiday weekend in order to get a deal, a new poll reveals the
public’s
perception of some of the key players in the talks.
While
none of the politicians involved
in the dispute had high marks from the public, slightly more people are
pleased
than unhappy with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, the West Chester
Republican
whose district stretches into the Dayton region, according to the
latest
Rasmussen Reports survey.
Of
likely voters, 37 percent have at
least a somewhat favorable opinion of Boehner, including 10 percent
with a very
favorable impression of him, while 36 percent have an unfavorable view,
including 14 percent who regard him “very unfavorably.” Another 26
percent are
not sure.
President
Barack Obama was not
included in the survey.
Boehner
and Vice President Joseph
Biden have received a bump in media attention for being at the center
of the
ongoing debt ceiling negotiations, but voters have not changed their
opinions
of either man.
The
survey found 43 percent of likely
voters share a favorable opinion of Biden, while 48 percent have an
unfavorable
impression of him.
Neither
Boehner’s nor Biden’s numbers
changed from last month.
Voters
strongly agree that failing to
raise the federal government’s debt ceiling is bad for the economy, but
most
see a failure to make big cuts in government spending as a bigger long-
and
short-term threat than the government defaulting on the federal debt,
according
to another recent Rasmussen survey.
Boehner
has hammered away at the
message that a debt limit increase can only pass the House if it
includes
spending cuts larger than the debt limit increase and is free from tax
hikes.
The
outcome of the negotiations going
on in Washington could have a significant impact on the economy and
businesses
throughout the country.
In
a recent letter to U.S. Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, Matthew Zames said there could be a
catastrophic
impact on the economy if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. Zames, managing
director for JPMorgan Chase & Co. , is co-chair of the Treasury
Borrowing
Advisory Committee, along with executives from Goldman Sachs , Morgan
Stanley ,
Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
“Any
delay in making an interest or
principal payment by Treasury even for a very short period of time
would put
the U.S. Treasury and overall financial markets in uncharted territory,
and
could trigger another catastrophic financial crisis,” Zames wrote.
Read
it at Dayton Business Journal
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