National polls show that blame for the government shutdown now falls on President Trump and Republicans, which Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” panel takes as a sign that the shutdown won’t last very long.
A Washington Post poll showed that 47% of respondents blamed Trump/GOP for the shutdown, while only 30% blamed Democrats. This reflects a shift in accountability: Polls in late September showed a narrower margin between those responsible for the shutdown.
“Again, I can tell you, as someone who’s been through this, the caucus is looking at this,” Joe Scarborough said on Wednesday’s show, reflecting on his tenure as a congressman in the 1990s. “And when I hear Republicans running around and saying, ‘Well, we gave them a clean CR,’ you poor fools, you sound like me when I was 33.”
Scarborough added: “It doesn’t matter. If you’re down 17 points in a poll, people start talking in the caucuses.”
Economist Jeffrey Sachs weighed in, noting that the change in polls leads him to believe the shutdown will end soon.
“The only problem the Democrats still have: They’re down on immigration, they’re down on crime, but they have health care. That’s why, as I listen to this conversation, it can’t go on any longer. Trump is sensitive to that. And if Marjorie Taylor Greene is sensitive to it, he has to do it. He has a better political antenna than Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Rep. Greene broke with Republicans earlier this week by speaking to X to express concern that if Obamacare subsidies are not extended, health insurance premiums for many Americans will rise significantly.
“I’m going to go against everyone on this issue, because when the tax credits expire this year, my own adult child insurance premiums for 2026 will DOUBLE, along with those of all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district,” she said.
Watch the “Morning Joe” segment on the government shutdown below.
