A Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Americans were split on the decision that the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, should be tied to the US government budget. One-third of the respondents said Obamacare should be linked to plans that would pay for the operations of the federal government. One-third did not agree. One-third preferred the middle ground and said they did not agree nor disagree. The poll was conducted in the past four days before the government finally shut its operations down.

The survey also revealed that a quarter of Americans would blame Republicans in Congress should the shutdown occurred. Another 14% said it should be President Obama's fault, while 5% said it should be the Democrats in Congress that would had to be blamed. Forty-four percent of the respondents said the current government should be at fault.

Ipsos' US Polling and Public Sector Practice Managing Director Cliff Young said, "It's a 'pox on all your houses' (result), while they do tend to blame the House Republicans more than Obama."