Government Shutdown Blame Divided Between Republicans and Democrats According to New Poll

The government shutdown commenced on October 1 following Congress's failure to pass a new spending bill.

Washington:

According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, Americans are attributing blame for the ongoing government shutdown to both Republicans and Democrats, while expressing concerns about potential service disruptions as one-third of federal employees remain on unpaid leave.

The five-day survey, completed Tuesday, asked Americans nationwide about blame allocation for the shutdown, now entering its ninth day. Results showed 67% of respondents believe Republicans deserve a fair amount or great deal of blame, while 63% said the same about Democrats. Similarly, 63% indicated President Trump, a Republican, bears at least a fair amount of responsibility.

With the survey of 1,154 adults nationwide having a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction, blame levels appear roughly equivalent across both parties and the president.

Leadership from both parties continues pointing fingers at the opposition for the shutdown that began October 1 when Congress failed to approve new spending legislation.

Both parties are attempting to gain political advantage from the situation ahead of the November 2026 midterm elections, though some lawmakers have cautioned against seeking political benefits from circumstances causing significant federal staffing shortages and already resulting in air travel delays.

"At the end of the day, we're hurting people somewhere. How in the world can we come out ahead?" remarked Republican Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia. "This is not a game, really, of the Senate against the House or the Republicans against the Democrats. This is real live people who are depending upon us to do our jobs right."

While Republicans hold majorities in both congressional chambers, they cannot pass funding legislation without Democratic support in the Senate, where most bills require 60 votes out of 100 members.

Democrats refuse to support any bill until Republicans agree to extend health insurance subsidies, with congressional Democrats arguing public frustration will target Republicans as Americans receive notifications this month about next year's health insurance costs.

"The public is seeing how bad healthcare costs are and their rising prices, and they know we're on their side," stated Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

Many Americans worry about personal impacts from the shutdown. The poll revealed 49% of respondents expressed concern about potential delays in services they depend on, such as Social Security payments or student aid, while 33% reported no such worries.

About 39% of Democrats indicated being very concerned about the shutdown, compared to 12% of Republicans expressing similar sentiments.

President Trump, who campaigned on reducing the federal workforce, has threatened mass firings during the shutdown, though the White House has issued contradictory signals regarding permanent layoffs.

Republican support for mass federal worker terminations has declined since earlier in the year when Trump enlisted billionaire Elon Musk to reduce federal spending through the Department of Government Efficiency.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll concluding April 2 showed 76% of Republican respondents supported firing tens of thousands of federal workers. In the latest poll, this support among Republicans dropped to 62%. Only 8% of Democrats backed layoffs, a figure virtually unchanged from the previous survey.