In the poll conducted from Thursday and through the weekend, only 27 percent of registered voters said funding the wall was important enough to prompt a government shutdown on Saturday — making it their lowest priority. Sixty-one percent of voters said it wasn’t important enough to prompt a shutdown.
The idea of a shutdown over wall funding was more palatable to Republicans. Four in 10 GOP voters said the issue was important enough to prompt a shutdown, compared with 19 percent of Democrats and 21 percent of independents. Still, roughly half of Republicans (51 percent) said it wasn’t worth a shutdown.
Americans are generally allergic to governing by crisis. Almost 7 in 10 (67 percent) said members of Congress should take all necessary steps to avoid a shutdown, and try to achieve their policy goals another way, up just slightly from earlier this month. Again, Republicans (24 percent) were slightly more willing than Democrats (15 percent) or independents (17 percent) to back using funding lapses as leverage to help lawmakers achieve policy goals.
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