July 19, 2011 07:34 PM UTC

Zogby: 70% of Americans Fear NOT Raising Debt Ceiling

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• by: Colorado Pols

New polling results from Zogby show that Republicans are not on the side of most Americans when it comes to the debt ceiling debate — no surprise, as previous polling has indicated:

A small majority (52%) of likely voters now agree Congress should raise the debt ceiling, which is twice as many who held that view last November (26%). Also, 70% now believe failing to raise the debt ceiling would have serious consequences.

While 80% want deficit reduction measures to be part of the agreement to raise the limit, 52% say excessive budget cuts would potentially damage economic recovery.

President Barack Obama is seen as more reasonable than Congressional Republicans in the debt ceiling debate, but by only a 45%-42% difference. Both Obama’s approval rating (43%) and the percentage who say he deserves re-election (38%) remain statistically unchanged over the past month.