Quagmire!
Sudden interest in health-care polling, now that one shows support for the public option. Cherry-picking Washington Post buries the fact that overall, Americans still don’t like the health care bill. And they don’t want to pay for it.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health-care plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and wins clear majority support from the public.
…
But in a sign of the fragile coalition politics that influence the negotiations in Congress, Obama’s approval ratings on health-care reform are slipping among his fellow Democrats even as they are solidifying among independents and seniors. Among Democrats, strong approval of his handling of the issue has dropped 15 percentage points since mid-September.
…
Overall, 45 percent of Americans favor the broad outlines of the proposals now moving in Congress, while 48 percent are opposed, about the same division that existed in August, at the height of angry town hall meetings over health-care reform. Seven in 10 Democrats back the plan, while almost nine in 10 Republicans oppose it. Independents divide 52 percent against, 42 percent in favor of the legislation.
There are also deep splits in the new poll over whether the proposed changes would go too far or not far enough in expanding coverage and controlling costs. Twice as many see the plan as leaning toward too much government involvement, but since last month there has been a nine-point increase in the number who say government should be more involved.
On the issue that has been perhaps the most pronounced flash point in the national debate, 57 percent of all Americans now favor a public insurance option, while 40 percent oppose it. Support has risen since mid-August, when a bare majority, 52 percent, said they favored it.
The complex picture those numbers paint reminds me a little of the Iraq War debate, when polls indicated Americans wanted to win, they just thought it was a quagmire. Going a little deeper into the article, it looks like, a majority of Americans wish everyone could have health insurance, they just think it’s a quagmire.
Faced with a basic choice that soon may confront the administration and Democratic congressional leaders, a slim majority of Americans, 51 percent, would prefer a plan that included some form of government insurance for people who cannot get affordable private coverage even if it had no GOP support in Congress.
OK, so real public option support isn’t 57 percent after all. The extra 6 percent only like it if it’s something the GOP would agree to. What are the chances of that? Read on:
But if there is clear majority support for the public option and the mandate, there is broad opposition to one of the major mechanisms proposed to pay for the bill. The Senate Finance Committee suggested taxing the most costly private insurance plans to help offset the costs of extending coverage to millions more people. Sixty-one percent oppose the idea, while 35 percent favor it.
The big difference between the Iraq and Obamacare political fights is that George Bush, though chimp-like in appearance and famously unpopular, had Democratic support for the Iraq war, stuck to his principles, and had his way despite the Democratic leadership’s opposition. Better-liked hopemonger Obama can’t even keep his own party on board, has already surrendered his core agenda item, and has proven significantly less adept at leading the Dem Cong around by the nose.
Back to the poll results, Americans are a fickle bunch. Maybe they like the public option better because Obama agreed to drop it. Anyway, given the article’s general litany of bad polling news for Obama and the Dem Cong, the lede probably should be a little less chipper.
Maybe something like, “Despite an ironic, slight uptick in popularity for a key signature principle the president has abandoned and large majorities think is a financial boondoggle, his effort continues to bomb with voters and flounder in Congress.” With a retro Bush-era headline that says “Quagmire!”
WSJ, meanwhile, with a look at a lot of stand-off, over-the-horizon, fight-al-Qaeda from-Okinawa efforts Dems are proposing to make defeat look like victory. The scary thing is, their determination to avoid looking like losers means there is still a high degee of danger we’ll get saddled with whatever ill-conceived half measure they can finally wrangle enough votes to ram through.
FireDogLake: 51 percent mandate! ( um … CharredCaninePlunged?)
Hold everything, inconvenient alternate poll! HotAir: Rasmussen, 54 percent opposed. Ed Morrissey notes that Obamacare fares worst among people who actually vote, pay taxes, that kind of thing:
The internals of the poll show big problems for Democrats who wind up supporting it in Congress. Both men and women oppose it, the latter by eleven points (54%/43%). Only the youngest category of voters support it; majorities in all other age demographics oppose ObamaCare by wide margins, including 18 points among thirtysomethings (58%/40%) and 20 points for fortysomethings (58%/38%). Independents still oppose it by similar margins, 56% to 38%. Among income demographics, only those earning under $20K per year support it; majorities oppose it now in every other income category.
Hold everything again! Moe Lane with the October Rasmussen Trust numbers. GOP spanks Dems 10 for 10 issues, with improvement in 9 of 10. Says Moe:
Does the Democratic Party feel like demonizing their opponents on health care rationing some more? – because I think that the GOP can somehow manage to find the strength to keep bearing up under the Democrats’ scorn.
Hold everything again once more! HotAir: WaPo sample skewed.
Someone explain please … why they are so insistent on driving up the deficit and wrecking a major sector of our economy in the middle of a “depression.” Joe Biden, via Gateway.
via Surber, 3000 of Britain’s National Health Service workers get private care … “so they can leapfrog their own waiting lists.”
Also, Surber thumbs through the 1,502 pages of the Baucus bill, spots a couple of the scary parts.
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Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:25 am on Tuesday, October 20, 2009
4 Responses to “Quagmire!”
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October 20th, 2009 at 11:45 am
[...] Jules Crittenden: Back to the poll results, Americans are a fickle bunch. Maybe they like the public option better because Obama agreed to drop it. Anyway, given the article’s general litany of bad polling news for Obama and the Dem Cong, the lede probably should be a little less chipper. [...]
October 20th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
You can’t say Congress hasn’t been warned. If they Rahm this white elephant into law, the coming elections will be bloody.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
[...] Welcome, AoSHQ readers. And Instapundit readers. And Jules Crittenden readers, [...]
October 24th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
[...] Thanks Be to Obama Moe Lane: The October Rasmussen Trust numbers. (Ten for ten) Jules Crittenden: Quagmire! Hot Air: Rasmussen: ObamaCare support dropping again and Not quite understanding the word mandate [...]