MORE POLITICO "DATA"

There are now 2,263 responses on this POLITICO thread about the debt ceiling, making it one of the most commented I've seen in a while.  I suspect this is because the hard-core conservatives are so firmly opposed to any tax increases and Nate Silver points out that a recent Gallup poll  this group accounts for only about 20% of the American public:

Silver goes on to point out that the House GOP is more extreme than the average Republican:

Consider that, according to the Gallup poll, Republican voters want the deal to consist of 26 percent tax increases, and Democratic voters 46 percent — a gap of 20 percentage points. If Republicans in the House insist upon zero tax increases, there is a larger ideological gap between House Republicans and Republican voters than there is between Republican voters and Democratic ones.