Poll: Who is to Blame for the Government Shutdown?

 

In 1995, when a budget battle led to a government shutdown, nearly 50 percent of Americans blamed House Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republicans for the debacle and only 27 percent believed then-President Bill Clinton was the culprit.

According to a recent poll, the blame is more equally spread. So I am asking asking the question to my readers, 'Who is Most to Blame for the Government Shutdown?'

Please vote using the web part in the upper right corner.

The Argument for each option:

The White House - The government will only shut down if Obama vetoes the budget that comes to his desk. The House continuing resolution bill funds everything except for ObamaCare. In truth, by refusing even to negotiate with the Republican leadership and threatening to veto a budget that doesn't fit his own specifications, it is Obama, not congress, who is putting the country at risk of a government shutdown.

Congressional Republicans - It is a failed premise to assume that the group steering the Republican caucus is composed of reasonable people who will sit down and fairly negotiate solutions to our problems. Instead of flexibility and reason, they are pressing forward with an inflexible proposal in the eleventh hour of the law. They aren’t going to stop. House Republicans don’t want to negotiate. They are trying to conqueror.

Congressional Democrats - Blame the Democrats for provoking an imminent government shutdown, Majority leader Harry Reid is "using the threat of default to force Obamacare on the American people". A set of "parliamentary trickery" to weasel in an amendment on the House passed bill that will circumvent the will of the American People.

Tea Party Darlings - Ted Cruz's 21 hour non-filibuster-athon was nothing but theatrics and an attempt to prop himself up. He's provoking a government shutdown, defying his own party to win the support of a vocal minority of the American People. 

All of the Above - The will of the American People has been lost in this debate. For either side to blink at this point would be to display weakness and to propel the opposition to a moral victory that will resonate though the next election cycle and it is this fact, not what is best for the country, that will determine the outcome.

The American People - Who voted to retain 92% of congress in last years election knowing that they where all a bunch of inept boobs.