Republican Shutdown and Default Apocalypse Open Thread, Day 11

Filed in Open Thread by on October 11, 2013

Here is the current situation from what I can tell:

  • Obamacare is alive and it is no longer a hostage.
  • The Government is still shut down and the House is still trying to keep it as a hostage.
  • The Debt Ceiling limit might be extended a few weeks (maybe a few months), but the GOP is still trying to keep it as a hostage.
  • The GOP is really being beat up in the court of public opinion.

So I’m going to steal some of DD’s territory here and throw out some polls:

NBC/WSJ Poll  (10/10/13)

  • 53% to 31% of people polled blame the GOP over President Obama for this mess.  That 22 point spread is the bigger than the margin of blame the GOP got during the Clinton-era shutdown.
  • 24% have a favorable opinion of the GOP — a new low
  • 21% have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party — also a new low
  • 47% to 39% Prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress (up from the 3 point spread last time)
  • 38% now see Obamacare as a good idea, 43% see it as a bad idea – up from 31% good idea, 44% bad idea last month.
  • 50% oppose eliminating funding for the law, which is up from 46%  percent who said they opposed that in a Sept. 2013 CNBC poll.
  • 52% to-44% believe the government should do more to solve problems. Back in June, the public was split, 48 percent to 48 percent, on whether the government should do more or less.

Those last three are simply brutal for the GOP — representing a “boomerang” effect for their hostage-taking.  They’ve actually made Obamacare more popular and improved the view of government as a whole.  President Obama’s polling here is relatively stable — a 47% job approval, up 2 points (within the margin of error) from the last time.  70% of those polled think that the GOP is putting politics first.

WaPo/ABC Poll (10/7/13)

  • 70% disapprove of the GOP here, with strong disapproval at 51%
  • 45% approve of Obama

They’re getting beat up in Gallup too:

 

 

So the bottom line is that — one year ahead of the midterms — the GOP is definitely getting killed here, even though they expected that they would not be allowed to hang out on that branch they climbed out onto this long.

 

 

 

About the Author ()

"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Comments (10)

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  1. jason330 says:

    Can’t wait for the clean CR, so I can get into some serious pointing and laughing.

  2. cassandra_m says:

    This is very good:

    House GOP leaders flailing for an exit strategy this week are again suggesting broad negotiations that will constrain entitlement programs such as Medicare. But our latest polling shows older and downscale whites overwhelmingly resist changes in Medicare or Social Security, which they consider benefits they have earned—and pointedly distinguish from transfer programs.

    Those findings suggest that the real fight under way isn’t primarily about the size of government but rather who benefits from it. The frenzied push from House Republicans to derail Obamacare, shelve immigration reform, and slash food stamps all point toward a steadily escalating confrontation between a Republican coalition revolving around older whites and a Democratic coalition anchored on the burgeoning population of younger nonwhites. Unless the former recognizes its self-interest in uplifting the latter—the future workforce that will fund entitlements for the elderly—even today’s titanic budget battle may be remembered as only an early skirmish in a generation-long siege between the brown and the gray.

    This also suggests to me that the GOP also knows that their “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” prescription for poorer people is pretty much vaporware — at least in the way we know traditional middle-class mobility. Because if there was genuine opportunity — rather than low wage jobs with no benefits — they’d be proactively working on promoting that. But they aren’t interested in incentivizing the kinds of employment where families can be well cared for.

    Go read the whole thing.

  3. cassandra_m says:

    Oh and hey! The AFL-CIO has a copy of the Social Security ransom note.

    Social Security provides us the best opportunity to begin solving our nation’s significant budge imbalances… The ongoing fiscal discussions in Congress provide an opportunity to address entitlement program deficits… with our limited time frame to take action before we run up against fiscal deadlines.

    And their idea of solving the Social Security problem includes means-testing, raising the retirement age, Chained CPI, going back to the Reagan-era FICA cap.

  4. puck says:

    Honest question, what is wrong with means testing? As long as the cutoff isn’t too low. The tax is regressive anyway.

  5. jason330 says:

    It opens the door to looting payments down the line. A better solution is moving the maximum taxable earnings up.

  6. Dave says:

    Or better yet, changing the definition of Social Security Wages so that those who do not receive a wage, salary, or ordinary income have to play on the same level field.

  7. cassandra_m says:

    Yes — not much problem with means testing except what that might open the door to. With these people, who the heck knows.

  8. jason330 says:

    Apparently means testing is going to be in the deal. Salon’s Brian Beutler is pretty happy about the overall contours of the deal that is shaping up though, “There will be elections in the future. The nature of the deal needs to establish that if Republicans lose them, they can’t cause an artificial crisis and seize control of the domestic agenda.”