Republicans, not President Obama, will be blamed if the government shuts down early Tuesday, new poll numbers suggest.
Why? Because of the fight being waged over Obamacare, a poll from ORC International conducted for CNN indicates. The poll was a telephone sampling of 803 adults, from Friday through Sunday, and has a plus or minus margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
What it says: Most Americans who responded to the survey, 69 percent, think Republicans in Congress are acting like “spoiled children” over the fiscal fight. By comparison, 58 percent think Democrats are behaving similarly. And 47 percent say the president is like a spoiled child, CNN reported.
As for affixing blame for the looming shutdown, 46 percent point the finger at Republicans, 36 percent at the president and 13 percent at the GOP and Mr. Obama equally, CNN said.
Still, Mr. Obama is losing support.
“The number who would hold congressional Republicans responsible has gone down by 5 points since early September, and the number who would blame Obama is up 3 points in that same time,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland, in the CNN report. “Those changes came among most demographic groups.”
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Meanwhile, popularity numbers for Obamacare continue to decline. Fully 57 percent say they don’t like the health care reform — up 3 percentage points from May.
“A majority of Republicans think that blocking Obamacare is more important than approving a budget agreement,” said Mr. Holland, CNN reported. “So do tea party supporters, regardless of their partisan affiliation.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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