Republicans under pressure to back down on US financial shutdown
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that by a 22-point margin (53 per cent to 31 per cent), the public blames the Republican Party more for the shutdown than President Barack Obama – a wider margin of blame for the Republicans than the party received in the poll during the last shutdown in 1995-96.
Republican opposition to agreeing a budget unless Obama’s health care legislation is halted has boomeranged on them. The health-care law has become more popular since the shutdown began. Thirty-eight per cent see the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”) as a good idea, versus 43 per cent who see it as a bad idea – up from 31 per cent good idea, 44 per cent bad idea last month.
Hopefully the Republican Party will pay an electoral price for its blackmail tactics. The poll reveals that one year until next autumn’s mid-term elections, American voters prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress to a Republican-controlled one by eight per centage points (47 per cent to 39 per cent), up from the Democrats’ three-point advantage last month (46 per cent to 43 per cent).