There is a fascinating new poll out about the debt ceiling that Washington politicians should pay attention to.

Just 27 percent of Americans support raising the debt limit, while 63 percent oppose raising it.Eighty-three percent of Republicans oppose raising the limit, along with 64 percent of independents and 48 percent of Democrats. Support for raising the debt limit is just 36 percent among Democrats, and only 14 percent among Republicans.Seven in ten who oppose raising the debt limit stand by that position even if it means that interest rates will go up.

But along the way, Brian Montopoli, the reporter, gets something amazingly wrong — so amazing he either does not know what he is talking about or he is lying. In the write up of the poll, Montopoli writes, “If the debt limit is not raised, the United States will default on its bonds for the first time in history.”That simply is not true. In fact it is only true if Barack Obama instructs Tim Geithner to default.In fact, back in January Pat Toomey pointed out that

The debt service, interest on our debt is about 6 percent of everything the federal government has to pay. So, we would be taking in enough revenue to cover more than 10 times all the interest that we owe. There is no reason we would have to default on our interest obligations.

We will not default on our debt. To say otherwise is a lie or monumental case of bad and lazy reporting.