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 today. 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. Some 53 percent support cutting the budgets of financial regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, in spite of the widespread consensus that a lax regulatory atmosphere contributed to the devastating financial crisis of 2007-2009.