Poll: Americans increasingly see the government shutdown as serious

Seventy-one percent of Americans now say they see the partial government shutdown as at least somewhat serious, a modest uptick from 62 percent last week and 61 percent at the beginning of the shutdown. The share who consider it very serious now stands at 42 percent, up from one-third last week…

Twenty-three percent of Americans now say they’ve been affected in some way by the current shutdown or that they expect to be, up from 10 percent at the start of the shutdown. For some, that simply means living with the sense that their government isn’t working. But other responses were more specific. Several said they’d reconsidered visits to national parks or expressed looming concerns about tax season. (The White House has since announced that tax refunds will be paid regardless of the status of the shutdown.)