Viewers of MSNBC's Hardball With Chris Matthews Tuesday night learned the real reason the United States is in the middle of a financial crisis. One of Matthew's guests Alex Wagner, host of Now with Alex Wagner, explained the shutdown and the possible default was all being caused by those anti-science anti-fact Republican conservatives who don't believe in climate change:

Can I say something about their motivation? A, I don’t think they really care about the struggles of the poor and the working class but B, Chris there has been this whole vein of anti-fact anti-science Republicanism conservatism that has been borne out in the debate about climate change, in the debate about facts, in the debate about polls going into the 2012 election and now is being borne out here. "We [the tea party] don’t believe what the economists have to say about the debt ceiling." A Pew poll just came out a few hours ago, 60% of the Tea Party do not believe the debt ceiling is something that needs to be paid attention to.

Perhaps the facts behind the poll's answer about the debt ceiling include the truth that default, if things come to that, will be the choice of the President. The treasury takes in $250 billion per month, but paying interest on the debt requires only $20 billion per month.