Over in the Corner, James Pethokoukis reports on House Speaker John Boehner’s comments to the Economic Club of New York, and how the Wall Street crowd would generally prefer a quick vote to raise the debt ceiling, followed by tax increases to balance the budget. Boehner indicated he would oppose both moves, and that serious spending cuts were a requirement for raising the debt ceiling.

The good folks at Resurgent Republic recently conducted a survey of 1000 registered voters April 17-20, indicating that public opinion is strongly on Boehner’s side. They found:

• 89 percent of voters oppose President Obama’s call to raise the debt limit without limiting spending (ie, a “clean” debt limit).
• Only 11 percent of voters – including 18 percent of Democrats – support increasing the debt limit without preconditions.
• The preferred option, drawing support from a plurality of voters (47 percent), is “raising the debt limit, but only in exchange for substantial spending cuts and a commitment to reduce the deficit.”
• The second-ranking option (35 percent) is “not raising the debt limit under any circumstances.”
• A majority of voters (56 percent) are more likely to support a debt limit increase if changes are made to make entitlement programs financially solvent for the future.
• Nearly half of voters (49 percent) are more likely to support a debt limit increase if substantial spending cuts are included to prevent the country from having to increase the debt limit in the future.
• By greater than 2-to-1, voters believe “any increase in the federal debt limit should be tied to specific cuts in federal spending” rather than “Congress needs to raise the debt ceiling because it is the only responsible thing to do.”

The details of the survey can be found here.