Who’s To Blame For The Shutdown? A Majority Say It’s Trump’s Fault
President Donald Trump bears most of the blame when it comes to who Americans believe is responsible for the partial government shutdown.
Now into its fourth week, the shutdown’s effects are being felt across much of the United States. Farmers are unable to obtain loans or payments to help them with the trade wars with China, microbreweries are unable to get labeling approval from the government for new beers, and more than 800,000 workers are either working on a delayed pay schedule or are furloughed as a result of the funding crisis.
These are just a few of the ways that some Americans are reeling from the effects of the budget shutdown. But there are many other ways the shutdown is affecting the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans, according to reporting from National Public Radio.
So who is to blame for the shutdown? A recent poll PBS NewsHour/Marist poll suggests that the president himself is being held responsible.
Fifty-four percent of Americans believe Trump deserves most of the blame for the shutdown. Another 31 percent say it’s the fault of Democrats in Congress, while just 5 percent are blaming Republicans. Ten percent are unsure who to blame, according to the polls findings, which were released on Tuesday.
A majority of Americans blame President Donald Trump for the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, according to the latest poll from the @PBS @NewsHour and @maristpoll.
Learn more from @LauraSanthanam: https://t.co/bYZH7629N2 pic.twitter.com/t7gzQZuwxJ
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) January 15, 2019
The poll also asked respondents to explain if the shutdown made them feel more negative or more positive toward Trump. More than 3-in-5 Americans said that they felt more negative feelings for the president as a result of the shutdown. Among Republicans, 1-in-5 said that they felt more negative towards him.
Only 28 percent of Americans said that the shutdown made them have more positive feelings toward the president.
The shutdown wasn’t doing much good for Democrats in Congress, either. The poll found that 54 percent of Americans had a negative view about party leaders in the legislative branch as a consequence of the shutdown. Thirty percent said they had a more positive view of them.
The partial government shutdown comes as a result of President Trump refusing to sign any new spending bills that do not include a funding provision for a planned border wall. Most Americans, at least according to the polls, do not approve. Seventy percent said that using a shutdown as a means to get policy passed was a bad strategy, while 22 percent said that it was an acceptable way to get things done.
The PBS/Marist poll was conducted from January 11 through January 13, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points, according to PBS News.
