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The Morning Plum: How long can GOP keep this up?

By Greg Sargent, WashPost, Updated: July 24, 2013

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds that a solid majority of Americans — 56 percent — believe that the Republican Party has been “too inflexible in dealing with President Obama.” Only 19 percent say the GOP has gotten the balance right, and 18 percent say the GOP has been too quick to give in (you have to wonder what, in the minds of those diehards, would constitute sufficient opposition). Sixty seven percent say Republicans are emphasizing a “partisan approach,” versus 48 percent who say that about Obama.

Meanwhile, the poll finds that 51 percent think Republicans should stop trying to block the Affordable Care Act, versus only 45 percent who think they should keep trying to prevent it from going into effect. This, even though the poll also finds that a plurality think the law is a bad idea. As I suggested yesterday, dissatisfaction with the law does not necessarily translate into public support for GOP efforts to block implementation of it.

Naturally, with public opinion pretty clear on the desire for more GOP cooperation with Obama and Dems — is it a stretch to suggest the public wants an end to GOP “sabotage governing“? — Republican leaders are preparing for a massive confrontation around the debt limit and government shutdown deadlines, one that of course centers on Obamacare. The New York Times has an overview of the emerging GOP priorities and game plan, and they are not pretty. In the House, Republicans are “moving to gut many of President Obama’s top priorities with the sharpest spending cuts in a generation.” In the Senate, a bloc of hard right lawmakers is vowing to oppose continued funding for the government if Obamacare is not stripped of its funding, too:

Taken together, efforts in both chambers amount to some of the most serious cuts to domestic spending since the Republicans in 1995 tried to shutter the departments of Energy, Education and Commerce — and ended up shutting the government down for 28 days.

(More here.)

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