Washington Post Poll: Out of the shutdown gate, Americans STRONGLY support extending the enhanced ACA tax credits

Via NBC News:

A Washington Post poll conducted on Oct. 1, the first day of the shutdown, found that 47% of U.S. adults blame Trump and Republicans in Congress, while 30% blame Democrats and 23% said they're not sure.

The survey found that independents blamed Trump and Republicans over Democrats by a wide margin of 50% to 22%. And one-third of Republicans were either unsure who to blame (25%) or blamed their party (8%).

While I'm glad to see that far more people are rightly blaming Trump & Congressional Republicans, it's the other section of the survey which I find more noteworthy:

Federal subsidies that reduce the cost of Affordable Care Act health insurance plans are scheduled to end at the end of this year. Should these subsidies...

• Be Extended: 71%
• End as Scheduled: 29%

That's right: Americans support extending the enhanced federal tax credits by more than a 2:1 margin, which I find pleasantly surprising given that only around 7% of the total population is enrolled in an ACA exchange plan.

But wait, there's more:

(Among those who said subsidies should be extended) Do you think Democrats in Congress should...?

• Demand the extension of federal health insurance subsidies even if it continues the government shutdown: 66%
• Compromise to end the shutdown: 34%

(Among those who said subsidies should end) Do you think Trump and Republicans in Congress should...?

• Demand that federal health insurance subsidies end as scheduled even if it continues the government shutdown: 72%
• Compromise to end the shutdown: 28%

Here's what the overall breakout looks like:  A strong plurality of respondents (47%) support extending the enhanced tax credits even if demanding that continues the government shutdown, while only 21% insist on letting the enhanced credits expire on December 31st even if that demand continues the shutdown.

About 1/3 (32%) think that one side or the other should compromise on the tax credit extension in order to end the shutdown,

Granted, "compromise" could mean any number of things ranging from how long they're extended to how robust they should be (kept exactly as they are now? Made slightly/somewhat less generous at various points along the income range?). The vast majority of the public doesn't really know the details of how the tax credits are structures, though, so there's no way of gleaning what specifics they'd be "comfortable" with...but the bottom line is that Americans firmly stand with Democrats on the issue.

We'll have to see how opinion shifts over time as the real world impact of the shutdown starts to actually hit people, of course.