AP poll: People divided on looming debt crisis

By Calvin Woodward

Associated Press

Published: Saturday, June 25 2011 6:46 a.m. MDT

FILE -- In this file photo of Tuesday, June 14, 2011, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, right, joins Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, left, in criticizing President Obama on jobs creation, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Cantor, who has been participating in bipartisan budget talks headed by Vice President Joe Biden, pulled out today citing an impasse over taxes that required intervention by President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.

J. Scott Applewhite, File, Associated Press

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Summary

It might be time for another midnight ride by Paul Revere, this time warning "the creditors are coming."

WASHINGTON — It might be time for another midnight ride by Paul Revere, this time warning "the creditors are coming."

Americans seem not to have awakened to the fast-looming debt crisis that could summon a new recession, imperil their stock market investments and shatter faith in the world's most powerful economy.

Facing an August deadline for raising the country's borrowing limit, politicians and economists are plenty alarmed. The people? Apparently not so much.

They're divided on whether the raised the limit, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that found 41 percent opposed to the idea and 38 percent in favor.

A narrow majority expects an economic crisis to ensue if the U.S. starts missing interest payments to creditors. But even among that group, 37 percent say no dice to raising the limit.

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