Poll: Most Would Blame Trump, GOP If A Government Shutdown Happens
Most Americans don’t want a shutdown to happen, while a small number, led mostly by Republican-leaning voters, welcome the impending funding crisis.
The findings are from a new poll released by USA Today and Suffolk University. A majority of respondents in the poll, 54 percent, said they oppose a shutdown and want government leaders to avert it. Twenty-nine percent say they are welcoming of a shutdown.
Blame for if a shutdown occurs would mostly rest on the shoulders of the GOP and the president, according to reporting from USA Today. While 30 percent of Americans would blame both Democrats and Republicans equally if a government shutdown occurs, 43 percent would put the sole blame on President Donald Trump and Republicans for it happening. Just 24 percent would blame Congressional Democrats alone for the crisis.
Trump has stated that he intends to shut down the government if he cannot get $5 billion for a proposed border wall between Mexico and the U.S. He tweeted on Monday his continued call for the wall, stating that it would “save billions of dollars a year and have, at the same time, far greater safety and control.”
That mirrors a claim that Trump made earlier in the month. As reporting from Politico pointed out then, Trump did not explain how exactly the border wall would save the nation money.
Washington is now five days away from a partial government shutdown https://t.co/uNGbYilsnJ pic.twitter.com/dd5h3minf0
— CNN (@CNN) December 17, 2018
While a government shutdown would still allow for essential services to remain intact, many government agencies may be forced to furlough employees to cover the costs of not being able to fund their work. Other parts of government, such as the national parks program, could be forced to close completely, and a shutdown would almost certainly hurt the economy, possibly by billions of dollars if it goes on long enough, per previous reporting from the Inquisitr.
In order to avoid a funding crisis in the near future, Trump and Congress must come up with a deal by this Friday. Trump has made the border wall a “must have” in his priorities for funding.
The issue came to a head last week when Trump invited Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York), the presumed future Speaker of the House and Senate Minority Leader, respectively, to the White House to discuss the funding crisis. While speaking to each other before the press, the three, along with a silent Vice President Mike Pence, engaged in a raucous back-and-forth about how best to fund the government, with the Democratic leaders saying they wouldn’t budge on the issue in order to end the stalemate, according to reporting from CNBC.
