Today in Washington D. C. - July 30, 2009 - 6 Different Polls Show Skepticism of Obamacare

The Senate will have a senators’ briefing at 3 pm with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Later in the day, the Senate will begin consideration of a bill to prevent the highway trust fund from going bankrupt, H.R. 3357. The bill would transfer $7 billion into the fund to keep it solvent and allow loans to states to pay for unemployment insurance. The Senate will consider four Republican amendments to the highway trust fund bill, including a substitute from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) to offset the spending in the bill.

Last night, the Senate voted 85-9 to pass H.R. 3183, the fiscal year 2010 Energy and Water appropriations bill. The $34.3 billion bill provides money to the Energy Department, including $10 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and water infrastructure projects around the country. Prior to final passage, the Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to cut $13.8 billion in administrative expenses from the Energy Department.

An amendment from Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) to prohibit further auto bailouts from TARP funds and distribute government shares of auto companies to taxpayers failed to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a budget point of order against it. There you have it folks, it is not the American Taxpayer that "owns" the bailed out auto companies, it is "Big Government" which is using our money for bailouts that owns the auto companies. And, will TARP ever end?

Six different polls over the last twenty-four hours shows that Americans simply are NOT being convinced by the Democrats’ arguments for a government takeover of health care. No less than five polls yesterday showed bad news for Democrats and President Obama on health care. And today the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press piles on with its own poll showing deep skepticism of the Democrats’ health reform proposals.

Yesterday, Gallup's poll showed that “less than a majority of Americans are convinced that healthcare reform will be beneficial to either the country or to their own personal situations. Americans are less likely to believe healthcare reform will result in improvements to themselves personally than to the national healthcare situation. [And] Americans believe that healthcare reform will increase costs rather than lower them, both nationally and for themselves.”

Even a poll from the government funded NPR found, “[w]hen asked about the [health care] plan now moving through Congress, a plurality of 47 % was opposed and 42% said they were in favor, based on what they had heard about the plan so far.” And by 48%-45% respondents agreed with the statement, “President Obama’s economic policies have run up a record federal deficit while failing to end the recession or slow the record pace of job losses.”

A Time poll found, “By significant margins, survey respondents said they believe the final health-reform legislation is likely to raise health-care costs in the long run (62%), make everything about health care more complicated (65%) and offer less freedom to choose doctors and coverage (56%).”

The New York Times writes about a poll it just conducted with CBS News, “Americans are concerned that revamping the health care system would reduce the quality of their care, increase their out-of-pocket health costs and tax bills, and limit their options in choosing doctors, treatments and tests, the poll found.” By 48%-46% Americans believe that it’s not possible to provide health coverage for most in the country without increasing the budget deficit, something Obama has been pledging to do. In addition, the poll found that respondents disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the budget deficit by 43%-40%. More people in the poll continue to say that Obama is trying to accomplish too much than the right amount.

Meanwhile, there’s the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. In that poll, for the first time, more Americans disapprove (46%) than approve (41%) of the president’s handling of health care. Also for the first time, more Americans think “Barack Obama’s health care plan” is a “bad idea” (42%) than think it’s a “good idea” (36%); those who think it’s a “bad idea” jumped 10 points in the last month alone. Further, 39% believe that “Barack Obama’s health care plan” will result in the quality of their health care getting worse, and 29% it will stay the same, while only 21% believe it will improve.

Finally, there is today’s poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Pew finds, “By a 44% to 38% margin, more Americans generally oppose than favor the health care proposals now before Congress. Opposition rises to 56% among people who say they have heard a lot about legislation to overhaul the health care system. Concerns about the costs and increased government involvement in the health care system are volunteered most often by Americans critical of the health care proposals.”

At minimum, the public is skeptical of the Democrats’ plans for a government takeover of the health care system and see that government involvement is likely to raise health care costs for themselves and the government at a time of record deficits. Consider that many of non-skeptical responses in the polls are from people who are in fact neither for or against the idea of nationalized health care because they do not know the facts or have been mislead by a biased certain media outlets. Many people don't have take time to seek the facts because they are buried trying to make ends meet in the Obama recession. Then there are those influenced by information from groups they trusted for honest information on health care benefits. Groups, like AARP who supported Obama, who are now willing to mislead their senior members and support a government run health care program that would lead to increased promotion of "end of life" options and minimizing available corrective care for seniors by their doctors. However, with increased information, the informed public is turned off by the deceptive government run health care. Maybe it is time for polls to be brutally honest and ask questions like: Do you favor euthanizing (killing) your grandmother or grandfather to reduce health care costs? Your very active mother just turned 65 , should she be denied access to knee surgery by the government?

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