Despite the best efforts of Democrats, the shutdown blame game doesn’t seem to be working in their favor. Buried in paragraph 19 (not kidding) of this article from The Hill newspaper,
President Trump’s approval rating isn’t taking a hit as the funding lapse is in its fourth week. In fact, his poll numbers have gone up a bit.
Decision Desk HQ’s polling average shows that Trump’s approval rating was 44 percent on Sept. 30 before rising to 46.2 percent on Oct. 23.
Wait, what? Trump’s approval rating has gone up, after more than three weeks of shutdown?
That conclusion is confirmed by the polling averages at Real Clear Politics. Since the beginning of the shutdown, Trump’s net approval rating has gone up by two percent.
That should have been the headline. Instead, The Hill went with,
Republicans grapple with shutdown – and why more are blaming the GOP
Ok. The Hill cites three polls showing a plurality of blame (but never a majority) assigned to Congressional Republicans over Congressional Democrats. The Hill quotes the House Speaker,
If the Republicans were responsible for this shutdown, that would lead the news in every mainstream media outlet every single night, it would be top fold of every newspaper, on the front page every single day.
He’s correct, of course. Hey, remember the “No Kings” rallies held last weekend? Well, neither does anyone else. I’m guessing a that a significant portion of America is unaware that the government is, in fact, shut down.
That may change soon. Elsewhere, The Hill reports,
SNAP funding expiration set to hit 40 million people
The real headline should be about how it came go be that more than 40 million (1 in every 8) are on food stamps. But I guess we are well beyond that debate. Instead, the debate is whether to use money in a fund meant for disaster relief to pay regular monthly benefits. In either event,
There is between $5 billion and $6 billion currently in that fund, experts say. That’s not enough to cover the estimated $8 billion in SNAP benefits due out next month.
The Hill notes,
Trump officials have located stopgap funding to fill other shortfalls amid the budget impasse — including money to prop up another nutrition program benefiting women and children, known as WIC. But they’ve declined to do the same with SNAP.
The continuing crisis.
