Idiocy and a people acting against their own interest.
Two in three Americans now favor defaulting on the U.S. debt and sending the global economy into a tailspin, throwing millions out of work. Reuters: "The U.S. public overwhelmingly opposes raising the country's debt limit even though failure to do so could hurt America's international standing and push up borrowing costs, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday. Some 71 percent of those surveyed oppose increasing the borrowing authority, the focus of a brewing political battle over federal spending. Only 18 percent support an increase...
First off, I'm guessing the question wasn't couched with the additional information, "...even though failure to do so could hurt America's international standing and push up borrowing costs...".
But I'm guessing that little information nugget is the first time people have been informed that would be the result. Some things are so self-evident they are not discussed much by rational people, leaving only the irrational to drum up the noise.