Today in Washington D. C. - July 29, 2009 - Gallup Poll Bad News for Obama

The Senate resumed consideration of 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.

Yesterday, the Senate rejected an amendment to the bill from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) which would have prohibited funds from the bill being used for projects in the committee report that have not been authorized by legislation. Please excuse the satire, but maybe Sen. McCain is starting to wake up and realize that his "My Friends" have never been the people across the Senate floor. It is a bad day in for Americans 1) when this type of amendment even has to be offered and 2) when the government can spend money on anything even when not authorized by Congress. The Constitution, ignored by many, requires Congress to FIRST authorized projects and then SECOND appropriate funds before the authorized projects can proceed. That means many federal projects, agencies etc. might be authorized but some or even a majority of these might not have funds appropriated thus they could not be done. Why because good or bad ideas required that money be available and not that the executive branch could spend money on anything and that we would spend based on what money we had available or could reasonably "borrow." and not in the fictitious credit line of indebtedness created by the Federal government spending on items not even authorized.

Also yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to send Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the full Senate. Six of the seven Republicans voted not to send the nomination to the floor. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) supported the nominee stating that she was "left of center" but the "president deserves deference on well-qualified candidates." Graham fell in line with the new criteria for judges established for by the President by stating "I feel good about Judge Sotomayor." Graham continue to be a great disappointment for conservatives who see him as the "great compromiser" and one who could have voted for confirmation of the likes of Dr. Josef Mengele as Surgeon General "in deference to the president." Graham may represent the desires of the people of South Carolina but he does not speak for or represent the heartbeat of the Republican Party and conservatives in America.

An important Gallup poll on health reform today has bad news for President Obama and the Democrats on health care: Americans aren’t buying their pitches. A plurality in the poll believes a new health care bill will “worsen” their health care and “reduce” their access to care. Less than half of the respondents believe it will improve or expand access for everyone else.

A key selling point from the administration has been that it will reduce health care costs. Just last week, President Obama said, “[I]t’s about the fact that the biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid. So let me be clear: If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit.” But, Gallup writes, “It appears to be a commonly held belief that healthcare reform will increase costs for the country as a whole and for the respondents personally, rather than decreasing these costs.” Indeed, by two to one (34%-18%) Americans believe the cost of their own health care will go up under these reforms. Forty-five percent believe costs will go up nationally and only 14% see a reduction in costs nationally.

Beyond cost, more Americans believe the health care legislation will worsen their own medical care than improve it. Thirty-four percent believe their own health care will worsen while only 26% believe it will be improved; 29% believe it will make no change at all.

And in terms of access to health care, more Americans believe the legislation would reduce their personal access to health care (29%) than expand it (21%), while 39% believed it would make no change. Less than half (47%) believe that access to health care would be expanded nationally, while 29% say it would reduce access and 13% believe it would have no effect. Interestingly, only 29% of Democrats believe it would improve their own access to health care.

Gallup’s summary of the poll results is dreadful for proponents of Democrats’ health reform plans. “These results do not coalesce into a terribly optimistic picture of Americans' views of the perceived impact of health care reform: Whether the focus is access to healthcare or the quality of care, 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. Americans believe that healthcare reform will increase costs rather than lower them, both nationally and for themselves.”

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