With the government shutdown set to become the longest in history on Saturday, about three-quarters of Americans find it shameful and "embarrassing for the country," according to an NPR/Ipsos poll released Friday. That includes a solid majority of Republicans.
Even though Democrats (87%) feel more strongly about this than Republicans (58%), a majority in both parties agree. Most Americans also believe that Congress should pass a bill to re-open the government now while budget talks continue (71%), once again with majority support coming from both Democrats (86%) and Republicans (56%).
That means fully 71 percent of Americans and a solid majority of Republicans agree with Democratic lawmakers—who continue to pass legislation to reopen most of the government, including short-term funding for Homeland Security while border negotiations continue. Senate Republicans have declined to even give that legislation a vote in an effort to coddle Donald Trump, who has refused to sign it.
Most Americans also found Trump's Oval Office address pretty pathetic, with only 10 percent saying the it brought the nation any closer to ending the stalemate.
Predictably, only about one-third of Americans (31 percent) believe that government should stay closed until the wall is funded, which includes 58 percent of Republicans, 21 percent of Independents, and 14 percent of Democrats.