Americans Are Siding With Democrats on the Government Shutdown

As the shutdown blame game continues, Democrats' demands are overwhelmingly popular among voters

Photo by Andy Feliciotti (Unsplash license)

As Donald Trump’s government shutdown enters its second week, Democrats on Capitol Hill are winning the battle of public opinion.

Current polling indicates most Americans blame Trump and Republicans, not Democrats, for the current impasse on government funding. In particular, a promising memo from pollster Geoff Garin of Hart Research has bolstered Democrats’ resolve, inspiring party leaders to stay the course.

“Voters continue to blame Trump and Republicans more than Democrats for the shutdown,” the memo read, according to NBC News. Citing the unambiguous results of recent polling, the memo added that most voters support Democrats’ demands to reverse Trump’s cuts to the ACA and Medicaid, adding that the GOP’s misleading counterarguments will break down “the longer and more aggressively” healthcare is debated in the court of public opinion.

The Hart Research poll notes that 52% of likely 2026 voters blame President Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown, compared to only 40% who blame Democrats. This result is closely mirrored by other surveys, including those published by the Washington Post and former FiveThirtyEight pollster G. Elliott Morris.

More importantly, 62% of respondents said that preventing major spikes in health insurance premiums is more important than ending the shutdown promptly, signaling widespread support for the Democrats’ initiative, even among those who blame them for the shutdown.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, even 57% of self-identified “MAGA supporters” endorse extending the healthcare subsidies at the center of the shutdown, notwithstanding their position on the blame game.

Regardless of the Trump administration’s desperate attempts to blame the shutdown on Democrats — even hijacking government websites to criticize the “radical left” in clear violation of federal law — voters can see through the president’s petty ruse.

Indeed, MAGA Republicans firmly control all three branches of government — both chambers of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court — and therefore have nobody to blame but themselves for their inability to pass a budget. Moreover, their proposal to reopen the government involves kicking upwards of 15 million Americans off their health insurance, which is an obvious non-starter for any representative or senator who possesses even a single shred of empathy for their constituents.

As a consequence of their cruel and inept leadership, Donald Trump and Mike Johnson once again require Democrats’ help to keep the government funded, yet are entirely unwilling to negotiate across the aisle to protect American families from the burden of rising healthcare costs.

The time to hold a serious discussion is long overdue, and Democrats are waiting patiently for their colleagues to answer.

“Instead of playing with people’s lives, Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress need to sit down with Democrats and have a serious negotiation to fix healthcare and reopen the government at once,” argued Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “We need to end this shutdown as soon as possible.”

“Each day, our case to fix healthcare and end the shutdown gets better and better, stronger and stronger, because families are opening their letters showing how high their premiums will climb if Republicans get their way,” he added.

Congress has no time to waste — without an immediate extension of ACA tax credits, millions of Americans’ health insurance premiums will double or even triple during November’s open enrollment period. If Congress waits any longer, patients’ out-of-pocket healthcare costs will be nearly impossible to bring back down, and hard-working American citizens will inevitably lose their insurance at the start of 2026.

Congress has a responsibility to protect the health and well-being of Americans in every state, and that includes stopping Donald Trump’s pro-sickness agenda.

To this end, Democrats will not budge — nor should they.

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