Heritage Action isn't in the business of
making life easier for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It's full steam ahead on the government shutdown for them, and
they've got polling "data" to back them up.
Heritage Action for America–one of the conservative groups leading the charge to pressure Republican lawmakers against voting to continue government spending unless they can defund President Barack Obama’s health care law–said its new poll of likely voters in 10 relatively competitive congressional districts showed that forcing such a shutdown would not be fatal for the GOP in 2014.
That's likely general election voters in this poll, conducted by Republican firm Basswood Research between Aug. 7-8. If found that 28 percent of voters surveyed would blame Republicans for a shutdown over defunding Obamacare. Twenty-two percent who would place blame on President Barack Obama, and 19 percent who would blame Democrats. Seventeen percent say a pox on all their houses.
But check out the phrasing of the questions: "51 percent of likely voters in the 10 districts said they would be less likely to re-elect their member of Congress if he or she 'voted to continue the full and immediate implementation of the Obama health care plan.'" That, of course, is not the vote Congress would be taking. Congress would be voting to keep government running. Here's the other: "the poll found that 48 percent of respondents said they were more likely to support their representative’s re-election if he or she 'did everything he or she could to slow down the implementation of the Obama health care plan, including voting to stop its funding.'" Again, this wouldn't be a vote to stop Obamacare. It would be a vote to stop the government. Period. That part seems to be missing from their formula. They probably also failed to inform respondents that shutting down the government wouldn't actually mean Obamacare was stopped, because why skew your results with facts.
But never mind all that. Mitch McConnell, you should totally believe these poll results and you should totally shut down the government. It's bound to be a big winner for your party.