Today in Washington D. C. - August 6, 2009 - New Polls: Growing Distrust of Democrat Health Care Plans

The Senate resumed consideration of the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor of New York to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and will be voting on her nomination which is expected to be approved. She may be sworn in quickly today.

The Senate will then proceed to consideration of the “cash for clunkers” extension bill, H.R. 3435. Senators will consider a series of 7 amendments to the bill, one from Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), and 6 from Republicans. Upon disposition of the amendments, the Senate will vote on final passage of the bill. At the end of today's session, they will begin its August recess, and are scheduled to reconvene on September 8th to return to consideration of the tourism bill, S. 1023.

With the Senate leaving for the August recess, Democrats are showing little progress in their health care negotiations and two new polls demonstrate Americans’ growing skepticism of President Obama and his health care plans.

A Quinnipiac poll released yesterday finds that “American voters disapprove 52-39% of the way President Obama is handling health care, down from 46 - 42 percent approval July 1, with 60-34% disapproval from independent voters. In fact, "[s]upport for Obama's handling of health care is down among key groups,” as pluralities of women, voters 18-34, and low income voters all disapprove of Obama’s handling of health care, compared to early July.

The Quinnipiac poll also finds, “American voters, by a 55-35% margin, are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to the deficit than it will not act to overhaul the health care system . . . . By a similar 57-37% margin, voters say health care reform should be dropped if it adds ‘significantly’ to the deficit. . . . By a 72-21% margin, voters do not believe that President Barack Obama will keep his promise to overhaul the health care system without adding to the deficit . . . . Voters oppose 68-26% requiring people to have health insurance or pay a fine and oppose 68-27% taxing employees for health care benefits from employers.”

But it’s not just the massive costs President Obama’s health care plans that have Americans worried. According to Quinnipiac, “Only 21% of voters say the plan will improve the quality of care they receive, while 36% say it will hurt their quality of care and 39% say it will make no difference.” In the other key poll, released by CNN and Opinion Research yesterday, 44% of respondents, a plurality, do not believe President Obama’s health plans would help their families, and another 20% don’t believe the proposals would help anyone in the country. CNN’s polling director, Keating Holland, said, “Less than a quarter of Americans with private health insurance think that Obama’s proposals would help them personally. Most people on Medicare and Medicaid also don't think that the Obama plan will help them.”

A challenge in selling Obamacare (the Democrat's government-run health plan) is that Americans with health insurance are largely satisfied with the care they receive. In the CNN poll, 83% of respondents are generally satisfied with the quality of care they receive and 74% are satisfied with their current health insurance. Interestingly, CNN includes numbers on similar questions from 1993, showing very similar responses.

Beyond health care, the polls also show bad trends for President Obama. Bloomberg notes, “Exactly half of the registered voters surveyed from July 27 to Aug. 3 by Quinnipiac said they approve of the job Obama is doing, compared with 42% who disapprove. That’s down from 57% approval and 33% disapproval in a poll taken in late June, according to results released today.” Bloomberg also points out, “The poll found that voters disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy by 49% to 45%.” In the CNN poll, the president’s job approval has dropped 20 points in six months, from 76% in February to 56% this week. He’s dropped 10 points since early April and five points in the last month. A majority, 51%, now say that Obama’s policies have not made the economy better. Plus, an increasing number—65%, compared to 55% in March—believe the president “has tried to handle more issues than he should have.”

All of these numbers show that Democrats face a daunting task in selling their "snake oil," oops - health care plans, to the public in August. It’s little wonder, that those Democrats not hiding from the public have already had trouble at town hall meetings.

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