46 percent of voters say fighting between parties is reason for potential shutdown: poll

Voters are most likely to blame both political parties for a potential government shutdown, as lawmakers scramble to come to a funding agreement, a new poll found.

The Morning Consult poll found that 46 percent of voters said fighting between Democrats and Republicans is responsible for disagreements on funding the government — despite the infighting occurring among House Republicans.

Another 20 percent said the risk of a shutdown is due to Republicans being unable to agree on appropriations for federal agencies. Roughly 11 percent said the same for Democrats and 22 percent said they did not know.

Congress is barreling toward a shutdown as House Republicans have yet to come to a consensus on spending bills ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline. A handful of holdouts in the House have opposed any sort of short-term funding measure, which is preventing Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from passing a GOP-only stopgap bill before compromising with Democrats.

When asked who they would blame for a potential shutdown, 34 percent said Republicans in Congress, 23 percent said President Biden and 21 percent said Democrats in Congress.

The poll also found that most voters are unaware about a possible lapse in funding.

Just 23 percent of voters said they had seen, read or heard “a lot” about a looming shutdown, with Democrats more likely to say they had heard a lot about it than Republicans.

Forty-one percent of voters who have heard more about the shutdown blame Republican infighting for it, while 34 percent blame fighting between both parties. Just 21 percent blame internal fighting among Democrats.

The poll was conducted Sept. 21-24 among 1,969 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.