By: Jim Geraghty – nationalreview.com – October 16, 2025

A new poll finds 58 percent of Americans say Trump and the GOP are responsible for the shutdown, while 54 percent say the same about Democrats.

Right before the ongoing government shutdown began, I wrote over in that other Washington publication, “Sure, the parties can point to polling indicating that the public blames the opposition more than themselves, but very few elected officials exit a government shutdown with their reputation enhanced, and there’s always a significant chunk of Americans who conclude, ‘a plague o’ both your houses.’”

And now, a bit more than two weeks later, here we are:

58 percent of Americans say President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of responsibility for the shutdown, while 54 percent say the same about Democrats in Congress, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. At least three-quarters of Americans believe each deserves at least a “moderate” share of blame, underscoring that no one is successfully evading responsibility.

Great job, Democrats. The percentage that blames the GOP side is a whole four percentage points higher than the side that blames you, in a survey that has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

Despite what politicians tell themselves, government shutdowns have no real winners. And no, taxpayers do not save money when the federal government shuts down:

While estimates vary widely, evidence suggests that shutdowns tend to cost – not save – money for several reasons. For one, putting contingency plans in place has a real cost. In addition, many user fees and other charges are not collected during a shutdown, and federal contractors sometimes include premiums in their bids to account for uncertainty in being paid. While many federal employees are forced to be idle during a shutdown, they have historically received and are now guaranteed back pay, negating much of those potential savings. OMB official estimates of the 2013 government shutdown found that $2.5 billion in pay and benefits were paid to furloughed employees for hours not worked during the shutdown, as well as roughly $10 million in penalty interest payments and lost fee collections.

If government shutdowns are such bad news for everyone in Washington, why did Senate Democrats refuse to vote for a continuing resolution that would keep the government open? I think Chuck Schumer and company have gotten into the bad habit of believing that the mainstream media will always portray them as the heroes and Republicans as the villains, ensuring that Democrats can do whatever they want and rest assured the public will always think worse of the GOP. But in these circumstances, the Democrats are self-evidently the side that is keeping the government closed, as CNN’s Jake Tapper felt compelled to point out to Democratic House minority whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts:

TAPPER: So, you’re blaming the Republicans for the shutdown. But a point of fact, it’s the Democrats in the Senate who are refusing to vote for the clean continuing resolution to fund the government for seven weeks. I mean, that just — it’s just as a point of fact, the way that we have always covered shutdowns is that the party that is not voting for the C.R., the continuing resolution to fund the government, is the party that is blocking the government funding and is responsible for the shutdown. That’s how we did it the last time in 2018, 2019. That’s the time we did before that during the Obama administration. I mean, it’s your party that is refusing in the Senate that is refusing to vote for the continuing resolution.

As Charlie pointed out earlier this week, the Democratic message on the shutdown is incoherent —  “The Republicans did this, and can end it at any moment; but also the Democrats did this, and we won’t give in until we get what we want; and also the Democrats are using the filibuster to fight for what’s right, and, if they were decent, the Republicans would take that tool away from us.”

With public opinion numbers like this, why should President Trump or Congressional Republicans make concessions to the Democrats?

Sorry, federal workers. You’ll have to do without a paycheck for even longer, because Schumer has marched into a box canyon.

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Source: New Poll: As Predicted, Americans Blame Both Parties for the Shutdown | National Review