12/17/2018

BUDGET/GOVERNMENT/POLLS/SPENDING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Americans have a clear message to Washington as the government hurtles toward a partial shutdown Friday [12-21-18]: Don’t. By a double-digit margin, 54 percent to 29 percent, those surveyed in a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll say they oppose the shutdown that President Donald Trump threatened if Congress doesn’t agree to his demand for $5 billion in funding for a border wall. Who would bear the blame? By nearly 2-1, Americans would blame Trump and the Republicans, not congressional Democrats. Forty-three percent would blame the president and the GOP, while 24 percent would hold congressional Democrats responsible. Thirty percent would blame both sides equally…There is, unsurprisingly, a sharp partisan divide in attitudes toward the shutdown. Democrats are almost all opposed to it, 83 percent to 6 percent. Independents are also overwhelmingly against the idea, 56 percent to 22 percent. Two-thirds of Republicans support a shutdown; one in five oppose it.”

Susan Page and Bill Theobald, “Americans’ message to Washington on the looming shutdown: Don’t,” USA Today, December 17, 2018 4:27 pm