Key Vote Looms in US Amid Polarized Political Atmosphere

April 26, 2011

Republican Representative Daniel Webster talks about the current fiscal budget during a crowded town hall meeting in Orlando, Florida, April 26, 2011

The debt ceiling vote will be a high-stakes political showdown with national and international implications.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says that failing to raise the debt limit would lead to the United States defaulting on its loans, and he says that would be catastrophic.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Democrat Kent Conrad, spoke on the "Fox News Sunday" television program.

"This is a defining moment and we have got to decide as a nation," said Conrad. "Are we going to do some things that all of us would prefer not to have to do or do we wait for the roof to cave in?"

Many Republicans oppose raising the debt ceiling, arguing that it is time to force the United States to stop what they see as a cycle of excessive spending and borrowing. They say that any effort to increase the debt limit must be linked to deeper budget cuts.

Several of these Republicans won the support of Tea Party activists in last year's midterm congressional elections, and the Tea Party supporters are demanding that the lawmakers keep their word to cut the size of government or face their wrath in the next election.

Political analysts say all of this has led to a hyperpartisan political environment in Washington, one that former Senator Bob Bennett says he knows all too well.