Most Registered Voters Say "Shut it Down!"

“62 percent”

-- Portion of registered voters in a new FOX News poll who would rather see the government shut down than see an increase in the federal debt ceiling

As President Obama has taken to pointing out, the sums involved in the current government shutdown negotiations are comparatively small.

But if lawmakers are prepared to shut down the government over a difference of two percent of just one year’s deficit, imagine what lies ahead when the federal government overruns its credit limit sometime in the next five weeks.

While the current fight will plow some furrows for planting new bargains on the debt ceiling, it will mostly sew salt in the fields of bipartisan compromise.

When then Sen. Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats demagogued President George W. Bush’s request for more credit and voted no in a spirit of great fiscal indignation there was great political advantage to opposing a debt ceiling increase.

As the trillions in debt have piled up, though, the political opportunity has mounted too. The latest FOX News poll suggests that even when faced with the possibility of a government shutdown, and even when acknowledging that a shutdown would affect them personally, a huge majority of voters oppose increasing the debt limit.

So, for those of you exhausted by the current war over a relative pittance, get ready for the mother of all battles. When Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner starts bleating louder about looming fiscal calamity, shutdown etc. it will be on.

Obama must now regret having taken such a tenor of indignation with Bush over the debt ceiling.

Well, over a lot of things, really.