66% of Republicans Want Their Representatives to Cause an Economic Catastrophe

There is a political movement led by anti-tax and anti-government crusader Grover Norquist that yearns for the day they can bankrupt the United States government and “drown it in a bathtub” because of their sheer hatred for America and its people. Most Americans may not agree with the way the nation is governed, but it seems unreasonable that very many voters want their representatives to deliberately cause near and long term damage to the government’s ability to function. In fact, other than die-hard teabaggers and libertarians, one would think that the idea of deliberately crashing the economy would not garner much support among the population, but the truth is that an overwhelming majority of Republican voters want their representatives to cause an economic catastrophe.

According to a recent WaPo/ABC poll, if the nation does face a crisis over raising the debt limit, it will be because Republicans follow the will of their supporters who assessed the disastrous economic consequences of a credit default and concluded it is an acceptable alternative to raising the debt ceiling. Doubtless, most Americans are ignorant of what the debt limit is, because overall only 46% of Americans believe the nation should meets its debt obligations and 43% want to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States. Even though 73% of Americans understand a credit default will create serious economic damage, 61% of Republican voters are in favor of default and 66% are aware that not raising the debt limit will cause serious harm to the economy and still think it is a good idea.

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