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Since 2011, many voters have learned that breaching the debt ceiling would be disastrous [1]

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Date: 2023-02-24  

Independent support for raising thedebt limit has more than doubled since 2011, from 22% support to 47% support. Democrats took the biggest leap, from a paltry 36% in favor then to a muscular 79% support now. Even Republican support increased 10 points, from 16% - 26%.

Partisans also differ considerably on how they would like to reduce the overall U.S debt. While 50% favor cutting programs and services, 47% want to increase taxes and fees to cover the shortfall. Those who favor raising taxes have increased 10 points since 2013, when just 37% said that was the best approach to closing debt gap.

House Republicans favor making cuts in order to shore up the nation's finances. The problem is that they no longer want to cut Social Security and Medicare, which accounts for over half of the federal debt, according to NPR. But Republicans also oppose cutting Defense Department spending, which makes up nearly half the country's discretionary spending.

Once both Defense spending and Social Security/Medicare are taken off table, there's basically nothing left to cut—which is exactly why President Joe Biden has challenged Republicans to come up with a budget as a starting point in negotiations with the White House. It's an impossible task for House Republicans who have no reasonable path to making the cuts they say they want.

President Biden’s surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Presidents’ Day was an important moment in American foreign policy, and also an equally important moment in public relations for the Democratic Party. It showed America’s support for a free and independent Ukraine, but not from an imperialistic position. Republicans haven’t had a coherent foreign policy platform besides U.S. imperialism, and now find themselves pulled in various directions as potential conservative presidential candidates try to figure out what exactly they want to pretend to believe in.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/24/2154681/-A-majority-of-voters-want-the-debt-ceiling-raised-a-vast-improvement-over-2011

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