65 percent of registered voters believe that Democrats should accept the current continuing resolution that the House has passed that keeps spending levels at that of the current fiscal year and should not hold out for additional Obamacare funds, according to the latest Harvard-Harris poll take Oct. 1 to Oct. 2.
That includes 39 percent of Democrats, 90 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of independents.
The expanded Obamacare premium tax credits were started during Covid in 2021 by former President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats and were sunset for the end of 2025 in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act by President Biden and Congressional Democrats.
Democrats could have made these provisions permanent but chose not to. Despite Democrats’ complaints, this particular sunset clause has absolutely nothing to do with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act or anything else. It is a Democrat-created problem.
Democrats lost the House in the 2022 midterms, and lost the Senate and White House in 2024 and so they simply have not had the votes to do what they’re asking. And now they need President Donald Trump to bail them out are willing to hold the government funding hostage.
In the same poll, 70 percent of voters overall oppose the government shutdown, including 74 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of Republicans and 74 percent of independents.
But, get this, even though 74 percent of Democrats oppose the shutdown, 61 percent of Democrats think Democrats should hold out during the shutdown to expand Obamacare.
So, Democrats don’t like the shutdown but they think it shouldn’t end until they get what they want.
In a similar vein, 39 percent of Republicans support the government shutdown even though 90 percent of Republicans want the clean continuing resolution that would reopen the government to be passed now.
So, some Republicans don’t mind the government shutdown but given a choice, prefer the clean continuing resolution over expanded insurance subsidies.
Only 10 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of independents support Democrats holding out for further Obamacare subsidies.
As a result, 53 percent of registered voters blame President Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, and only 47 percent blame Senate Democrats who are demanding an extension of the expanded Obamacare subsidies. In the numbers, more Republicans blame Republicans (31 percent) than Democrats blame Democrats (24 percent) and more independents blame Republicans (54 percent) than Democrats (46 percent). It’s around the edges, but it’s there.
Notice the massive difference depending on how the question is worded. When given the information that Democrats are making demands to expand Obamacare, voters say they prefer the clean continuing resolution.
Whereas when given no information in the who’s to blame question, the question flips. This Democrats’ perceived leverage: Public perception about what’s at stake in the shutdown and how it started. This likely points to a messaging gap for Republicans and the President to overcome.
President Trump and Republicans have offered to talk with Democrats about the subsidies — after the government is reopened.
Democrats counter that they must act right now to expand the subsidies plus removing the One Big Beautiful Bill’s prohibitions against illegal aliens receiving health care — and in exchange for just three weeks of government funding.
Democrats also warn that if a deal is not made on health care subsidies before the Obamacare open enrollment period, insurance premiums will be hiked by insurers. Kaiser Family Foundation recently issued such a warning in August, stating, “The expiration of enhanced tax credits will lead to out-of-pocket premiums for ACA marketplace enrollees increasing by an average of more than 75%, with insurers expecting healthier enrollees to drop coverage. That, in turn, increases underlying premiums.”
In other words, insurance companies are depending on federal subsidies to boost enrollments, and if the federal government doesn’t pay up and enrollees drop coverage, then everyone else will be made pay to the difference. It’s a shakedown! Democrats plan? Keep paying the extortion.
It’s a bad deal. If they want to “fix” Obamacare, that’s fine, but clearly voters want the government reopened first, forget about the illegal aliens (they’re going home and so don’t need Medicaid or insurance subsidies) and then look under the hood without expanding the budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.
But with Republicans controlling the House, Senate and White House, Democrats cannot expect to get everything they want — because they realistically cannot expect to get anything they want.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
