The vast majority of Americans disagree with shutting down the government over the health-care law, and more people blame Republicans for the shutdown, but a majority want compromise from both sides, according to a new CBS News poll.
Like in a Quinnipiac poll earlier this week, 72 percent disagree with shutting down the government due to differences with the health-care law; 25 percent are in favor of that.
By a 44%-35% margin, Republicans are getting the blame over President Barack Obama and Democrats; 17 percent say both are to blame. Back in 1995 in the poll, Republicans, led by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, were blamed by a wider margin -- 51-28 percent -- over former President Bill Clinton.
But more than three-quarters believe both Democrats (76 percent) and Republicans (78 percent) should compromise.
Democrats, though, say there is nothing to compromise on given that what they are asking for is to keep the government open with no strings attached while negotiations take place. Republicans are not proposing that. Instead, they want to fund items in a piecemeal approach while negotiations take place over repealing, limiting, or delaying parts of the health-care law.
President Obama continued to try his best to boost those margins today during an event at a manufacturer in Rockville, Md., laying the blame squarely on House Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans. He again called it a "Republican shutdown" and noted, "There are enough Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives today that if the speaker of the House, John Boehner, simply let the bill get on the floor for an up-or-down vote ... the shutdown would end today."
Conservative writer Byron York reported this morning that not only would a majority of the House overall support a clean temporary funding measure, but so would a majority of Republicans in the House.
