POLL: Americans Overwhelmingly Back Trump, GOP In Shutdown Battle

A recent poll from Siena College in conjunction with the New York Times found that a comfortable majority of Americans oppose the Democrat-led partial shutdown of the federal government.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and his Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have repeatedly called on the administration to “compromise” by by extending Obama-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax cuts and guaranteeing taxpayer-funded healthcare “for all.”

Republicans, and the White House, have rejected Democrat proposals due to demands for taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens. “If you look at the original they did with this negotiation, it was a $1.5 trillion spending package, basically saying the American people want to give massive amounts of money, hundreds of billions of dollars to illegal aliens for their health care, while Americans are struggling to pay their health care bills,” Vice President JD Vance said following a meeting between legislative leaders at the White House on Monday.

While Democrats were largely split on the issue of shutting down the government in order to secure their demands, Republicans and independents have been firmly against a shutdown.

According to the NYT/Siena poll, which was conducted just before the October 1 deadline, just 27 percent of respondents said Democrats should shut down the government if their demands are not met.

A slight majority, 47 percent, agreed with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in shutting down the government, while 43 percent disagreed. Republicans overwhelmingly disapprove of the Schumer-led shutdown, with just five percent of respondents expressing a positive opinion compared with 92 percent who want the government to remain open.

The poll surveyed 1,313 registered voters nationwide between September 22 and 27.

Senators Cortez Masto (D-NV), Fetterman (D-PA) and King (I-ME) joined all Republicans with the exception of Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) in voting for the House-passed temporary funding package, which will fund the government through late November, ahead of Wednesday’s midnight deadline.

“It’s a sad day for our nation. Our government shuts down at midnight,” Fetterman wrote in an X post. “I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them—but I won’t vote for the chaos of shuttering our government. My vote was our country over my party. Together, we must find a better way forward.”

Cortez Masto said she voted to fund the government because doing otherwise would “hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration.”

Government shutdowns affect all non-essential services, such as national parks, some regulatory agencies and more. Federal workers may also be furloughed depending on how long the shutdown continues. Essential services, such as military, air traffic control, social security and more will continue regardless of a government shutdown.