Although Americans are still divided on the Affordable Care Act, a wide majority oppose Congressional efforts to block its implementation by allowing the federal government to shut down, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday.
Quinnipiac surveyed 1,497 national voters between Sept. 23-29 and released results Tuesday morning, just after Congress missed its deadline to continue funding the U.S. Government. House Republicans have linked continued funding resolutions with delays in the implementation of Obamacare, leading to an impasse with Senate Democrats and the White House.
As a result, the federal government began a partial shutdown Tuesday morning just as state health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act began their first day of open enrollment.
The Quinnipiac poll found that the Obamacare law is still controversial. Americans surveyed oppose it by a 47-45 percent margin.
Republicans were staunchly opposed to the law, 86-9 percent, and Democrats staunchly supported it, 80-11 percent.
The poll found Independents were opposed to it 54-37 percent.
However, Congressional efforts to block the law’s implementation received lower marks from surveyed voters than the law itself.
Voters oppose allowing a federal government shutdown in an effort to block the rollout of Obamacare 72-22 percent, poll results suggested.
Again, voters were split by political ideology.
Republicans surveyed supported the federal government shutdown tactic 49-44 percent.
But 90 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Independents opposed it, according to the poll results.
In a statement, Peter A. Brown, assistant director of Quinnipiac’s Polling Institute, said the results were decisive.
“Americans are certainly not in love with Obamacare, but they reject decisively the claim by Congressional Republicans that it is so bad that it’s worth closing down the government to stop it,” he said.
The poll suggested that voters disapprove of President Barack Obama’s job performance 49-45 percent. Surveyed voters were more critical of the job performance of members of Congress. Voters disapproved of Congressional Republicans 74-17 percent and Congressional Democrats 60-32 percent, according to the poll results.
Looking ahead to the coming debate over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, the poll found voters in general opposed 64-27 percent to using the debate as another mechanism for blocking the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats oppose linking the debate over the borrowing limit to Obamacare 86-6 percent, while Republicans support the idea, 52-39 percent, the poll suggested. Meanwhile Independent voters opposed it 62-30 percent.
“President Barack Obama enters this standoff over the budget with an edge over Congressional Republicans in the voters’ eyes,” Brown said.