There has been a fair amount of discussion in recent days about whether Republicans should try to defund Obamacare. The instinct to do something about Obamacare is right. But Republicans can learn something from the American people. As polls have consistently shown, Americans like the idea of delaying—and of repealing—Obamacare. But they don’t like the sound of defunding it. In terms of policy, either approach would produce essentially the same result. (Whether the Obamacare exchanges are delayed for a year, or its exchange subsidies are defunded for a year, the result would be no taxpayer-funded Obamacare exchanges next year.) Politically, however, framing the effort as one of delaying rather than defunding stands a far greater chance of success. 

Over the past two-and-a-half years, Kaiser’s Health Tracking Poll has repeatedly asked Americans what they think of Obamacare and of efforts to defund it. On average, the eight Kaiser polls that have asked these two questions have found that Americans oppose Obamacare by 5 percentage points—45 to 40 percent. Yet they oppose defunding Obamacare by 29 points—61 to 32 percent. Kaiser’s most recent poll that addresses defunding (its April 2013 poll) shows no change in this steady judgment: Americans oppose Obamacare by 5 points (40 to 35 percent), but also oppose defunding it by 27 points (58 to 31 percent).