Biden gets more blame than McCarthy for debt ceiling impasse, poll finds
Ryan King
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More people fault President Joe Biden than House Republicans for the protracted debt limit deadlock, according to a new poll.
When asked who was more to blame for the lack of agreement, 33% pointed to Biden, 27% named House Republicans, 32% identified both, and 8% said neither, according to an Economist/YouGov poll.
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The poll also found that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) approval rating surged to one of its all-time highs.
When the United States first bumped up against its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling in January, the White House began refusing to negotiate over its demands for a stand-alone bill to hike the nation’s borrowing authority.
Biden met with McCarthy on the matter in January and then took until May to hold a second meeting.
Republicans blasted him for refusing to negotiate on the debt limit. McCarthy maintained that a debt limit increase should be paired with spending cuts but publicly took less of a hard line on specifics.
In past skirmishes between congressional Republicans and a Democratic president over the debt ceiling or government funding, the public has often blamed the GOP. For example, in the aftermath of the 2013 government shutdown, polls showed a collapse of support for Republicans in Congress.
The Economist/YouGov poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points and surveyed 1,500 adults from May 13 to 16.
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Biden met with the “big four” congressional leaders on Tuesday before departing for Japan on Wednesday for the Group of Seven summit. The two sides agreed to streamline negotiations by having a team of Biden representatives negotiate with McCarthy’s team directly.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen projected the government will run out of cash as soon as June 1 if there is no debt ceiling increase, elevating the risk of default on the national debt.