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The federal government shutdown became the longest in history on Wednesday. It’s now in its 37th day. And a new poll is the latest sign that it could remain pretty stubborn in the days ahead. That’s because it doesn’t seem like Americans are getting particularly tired of Democrats’ gambit. And combined with Democrats’ big wins in Tuesday’s elections and all of the other polling, there remains seemingly little political incentive for them to back off – along with plenty of potential downside. The new poll comes from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. Other surveys have generally tested who gets blamed more for the shutdown (the GOP, usually by double-digits) and how much people support Democrats’ policy goal of an extension of the enhanced Obamacare tax credits (usually more than 70%). But this one gets at the crux of the matter: Do people think this goal is actually worth continuing the shutdown? It turns out, based on the new poll, lots of Americans do think that: about half, in fact. The poll found that 48% agree with the statement that Democrats should continue to “refuse to approve a budget unless it includes extending these tax credits, even if it means the government remains shut down.” A similar number – 50% – chose the alternative: that Democrats should approve a budget without the tax credits “in order to quickly end the shutdown, even if it means the cost of health insurance will increase for some people.” That about half of Americans would support Democrats’ holding the line isn’t an overwhelming number. But it is remarkable for a couple reasons. One is that this is not at all normal. When Republicans shut down the government over their demands to defund Obamacare in 2013 and build a border wall in 2019, very few Americans thought those goals merited a shutdown. A New York Times-CBS News poll in 2013 showed only about 1 in 5 Americans said defunding Obamacare was worth risking a shutdown. A CBS News poll in 2019 showed only 28% said building the border wall was worth the shutdown, and only 31% said President Donald Trump should “refuse a budget unless it has wall funding, even if that means the shutdown continues.” The other reason it’s significant is that this number has stayed more or less consistent. It was 47% in a Washington Post poll conducted the very first day of the shutdown, October 1. That’s the percentage that said Democrats should continue demanding the Obamacare tax credits “even if it continues the government shutdown.” And it was 52% in a pre-shutdown Strength in Numbers-Verasight poll. Back then, that’s the percentage that said Democrats should withhold their votes unless “Republicans agree to restore funding for some government health care programs.” So more than a month later, despite all the real-world impacts of the shutdown – including travel delays, food stamps being jeopardized, etc. – Americans’ appetite for Democrats holding the line appears … largely unchanged. You could imagine a scenario where people might have sympathized with Democrats’ goal but ultimately lost their patience and decided to throw in the towel. That’s not what has happened. It’s merely the latest sign that Democrats could be tempted to keep driving a hard bargain. They continue to have the blame game in their favor. Republicans seem to be easing off their hard-line, no-negotiating strategy by floating the prospect they will promise votes on the Obamacare tax credits. And the shutdown didn’t appear to harm Democrats on Election Day on Tuesday, at all. Indeed, Trump keeps suggesting the shutdown actually hurt Republicans. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut summed it up well in comments to the Associated Press.
