Republican Rep. Tom Cotton has made it clear that he’d rather see government shut down than vote for a budget that included the Affordable Care Act.

His end of the Republican Party has polling data that explains this blame-it-on-Obama modern day Gingrichism.

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The poll from Heritage Action for America, first reported by NBC News, surveyed likely voters from 10 competitive House districts. According to Heritage Action, the results prove that triggering a government shutdown in an attempt to gut the new health care law would not be detrimental to the GOP.

The poll, conducted by GOP firm Basswood Research between Aug. 7-8, found that 28 percent of voters in the 10 districts would blame Republicans for a shutdown over defunding Obamacare, compared with 22 percent who would place blame on President Barack Obama and 19 percent who would blame Democrats in Congress. Seventeen percent said they would distribute blame equally among all three groups.

The poll also showed that 60 percent of voters would back a “temporary slowdown in non-essential federal government operations, which still left all essential government services running” if Obama could agree to at least slow the implementation of the law.

Small point: Obamacare is going to proceed in substantive measure regardless, which saner Republicans who oppose the grandstanding realize.

PS — None of the districts polled is in Arkansas. Even Karl Rove thinks it’s a bad idea.

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