The Senate voted this afternoon, only 20 minutes after convening, to reject the House of Representative’s spending bill and send it back for debate without the added amendments against funding for Obamacare, prolonging the decision over whether to avert a government shutdown that would begin at midnight tonight.

As the House once again has to consider the bill, the clock ticks towards the deadline that would shut down non-essential services of the government if no compromise is made between Democrats and Republicans, and the public is growing increasingly wary of the possibility.

A CNN-ORC International poll released today in a survey of 803 Americans shows that 57% of respondents oppose the changes to the healthcare system that Obamacare would bring. Republican opposition to Obamacare has stalled progress in passing a government funding bill to avert a shutdown.

The poll asked respondents the following curiously-worded questions: “Do you think [Barack Obama/Republicans/Democrats] has/have acted mostly as a responsible adult or mostly like a spoiled child/spoiled children?” Answers found that the majority blame Republicans for the back-and-forth in Congress.

The first government shutdown in 17 years is looking more like a reality, with Speaker of the House John Boehner stating this morning that he would not back down from the bill drafted by the Republican-majority House of Representatives despite Obama declaring that he refuses to definitively bank on a shutdown.

In addition to delaying Obamacare, one of the House’s amendments to the bill included a repeal of a tax on medical devices, which device-makers have insisted hurts jobs.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the House as they debate the spending bill again, 10 hours before a possible shutdown looms.

 Photo via Wikimedia Commons.