For decades, Americans demanded and got more government than they paid for. Now the accumulated debt looms over the country’s politics and stymies its government.

Chastened by debt crises in Europe and worried that rising debt at home is a drag on an already-fragile economy, Americans want to cut annual deficits and the debt that’s piled up to close to $16 trillion. They just can’t agree how it should be done, and their division helps gridlock Washington over critical questions of taxes and spending.

To learn whether there’s any path to breaking the logjam and solving some of the government’s intractable problems, McClatchy Newspapers commissioned an in-depth national poll and interviewed voters in a dozen states, from small towns to big cities.

Some see the debt as the product of a generation’s demands.

“A lot of that debt is what we owe ourselves for the standard of living that we all enjoy,” said Joe Brosig, a 71-year-old retired landscaper from San Angelo, Texas. “We are the ones that enjoy the amenities that improve our lives, such as infrastructure and services.”

More see it as a bill that’s coming due, and the sooner the country starts paying it, the better.

JoLinda Fridley, 44, an administrative assistant in Emmett, Idaho, is worried after watching husband Shawn get laid off after 20 years at Hewlett-Packard. She thinks lifting the cloud of debt would help the economy recover. “If we get a handle on the debt and start paying it off, I feel the economy would get better,” she said. “It’s a trickle-down effect.”

In Henrico, N.C., retired school superintendent Donald Springle, 80, calls the debt the biggest issue in the land.

“We just can’t continue to pay 40 percent of everything we do to a foreign government and pay back in interest,” he said. “Sooner or later, it’s going to bankrupt the country, and my children and grandchildren are going to have to pay off the bill. Somebody’s got to pay it. It’s got to stop.”

Who will pay that bill?

The McClatchy-Marist poll found widespread agreement that the nation’s debt is a top problem — it ranked just below the economy and jobs, and above such other issues as health care, energy, taxes, housing and immigration. The poll also found widely different views on where spending should be cut or taxes raised.

“Everyone sees the same problems, but when it comes to addressing the issue by changing the programs that people are most interested in, they think that more money should go to those problems or they should be maintained,” said Barbara Carvalho, director of the Marist Poll.

Few volunteer, and many fear they will bear the brunt.

Near Dallas, Peggy Heath, 57, worries that the mounting debt will force cuts in Social Security before she and her husband reach retirement age.

“It makes me sick. It’s so much money I don’t know how it could possibly be repaid,” said Heath. “My husband thinks he’ll have to work for the rest of his life. I’m not so sure he’s wrong.”

While Medicare and Social Security are two of the biggest parts of the budget, they’re largely off limits politically. Just 19 percent of voters think the country spends too much on Medicare; just 13 percent say that about Social Security.

Some voters blame the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for running up the national tab.

“The debt would not be so high if we would quit going off on these unnecessary wars,” said Cynthia Carter, 64, a retired teacher from Irmo, S.C.

But there is no broad appetite for cutting the military budget.

Just 1 in 3 voters thinks the country spends too much on defense, according to the McClatchy-Marist poll. Even among Democrats, 40 percent believe the Pentagon spends too much, but 55 percent believe it spends the right amount or too little.

When it comes to raising taxes, the poll suggests some support for increasing taxes for big business and Wall Street.

But voters split over whether they’d pay more themselves.

“By golly, listen, I’d want them spent the right way,” said Mildred Cooke, a retired teacher in Columbia, Mo. “I wouldn’t want them handed out for somebody to spend the wrong way.”

The poll finds Cooke in a slim majority, with 51 percent willing to pay more in taxes, under the condition that those making more than $250,000 also pay more in taxes. Among Democrats, 57 percent were willing to pay more. Republicans were opposed, with 53 percent unwilling to pay more.

“Good heavens, if they can’t spend wisely the money they have, why would I expect they’d do a good job with more money?” asked Sandra Bachmann, 47, a database manager from Cary, N.C., who identified herself as an independent. “It’s throwing money at a problem.”

 

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