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A pair of new national polls shows majorities of Americans disapproving of both President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans in the fight over raising the debt ceiling.
A Monmouth University survey released Wednesday finds just 34% of Americans approving of President Biden’s handling of the debt-ceiling issue, versus 55% who disapprove.
And for congressional Republicans, only 29% of Americans approve the way the GOP has handled the issue, compared with 60% who disapprove.
Biden’s overall approval rating in the Monmouth poll is 41%.
In addition, a CNN poll released Tuesday has 59% of Americans saying Biden hasn’t acted responsibly in the debt-ceiling fight, compared with 64% who say congressional Republicans haven’t acted responsibly.
Biden’s overall approval rating in the CNN poll is 40%.
But the two polls have mixed results over whether the debt ceiling should be tied to spending cuts
The Monmouth poll finds that a majority of Americans — 51% -- believe raising the debt ceiling should be dealt with separately, versus 25% who want it tied to negotiations over federal spending.
That stands in contrast to CNN’s, which shows 60% of Americans saying that Congress should only raise the nation’s debt ceiling if it cuts spending at the same time.
Why the different results?
It appears to come down to how each poll asked its question.
Monmouth asked it this way: “Do you think that raising the debt ceiling should be tied to negotiations over spending on federal programs, or should these two issues be dealt with separately, or do you have no opinion on this?”
CNN, meanwhile, asked this question: “Which comes closest to your view: 1) Congress should raise the debt ceiling no matter what; 2) Congress should only raise the debt ceiling if it cuts spending at the same time; 3) Congress should not raise the debt ceiling and allow the U.S. to default on its debts.”
The Monmouth University poll was conducted May 18-23 of national 981 adults, and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 5.6 percentage points.
The CNN poll was conducted May 17-20 of 1,227 national adults, and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.7 percentage points.