Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 14, 2009 - ABC: "Obama's Speech Doesn't Turn The Tide"

Senate will reconvene at 2 PM today and will resume consideration of H.R. 3288, the fiscal 2010 Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The bill provides $122 billion, including $11.1 billion for federal transit programs. Republicans are expected to file a number of amendments to the bill today and some votes are possible after 5:30 PM. Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska will introduce his amendment to strip ACORN funding from the current Transportation-HUD appropriation bill. After the current bill is finished, the Senate could move to the Interior-Environment, Commerce-Justice-Science, Military Construction-VA, or Defense appropriations bills.

Although President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on his health care reform proposals last week was billed as a game-changer and a major intervention by the president, a new ABC News/Washington Post poll out today shows that it appears to have had little impact. In fact, ABC News headlined its story on the poll, “Obama’s Speech Doesn’t Turn the Tide.”

In the new poll, President Obama’s approval on health care is even, 48%-48%, but a plurality (48%) remains opposed to “the proposed changes to the health care system being developed by Congress and the Obama administration,” down only two points since August. More telling is the finding that a majority of 54% agrees with the statement, “The more I hear about the health care plan, the less I like it.”

ABC’s article on the poll points to some other key findings: “65% think reform would increase the deficit. 40% t think it’d weaken Medicare, about twice the 22% who think it’d strengthen that popular program. Among seniors, 56% think reform would weaken Medicare, explaining why opposition to reform peaks in their ranks. Perhaps most basic are these: Americans divide, 35-38%, on whether reform would make the quality of care for most people better or worse (the rest expect no change). More think it would make their own care worse rather than better, by 32-16%; their own costs worse, by 40-20%; their own coverage worse, by 37-11%. Even among the uninsured, just 51% think reform would improve their own coverage. And none of these advanced after the president’s address.” Also interesting is the finding that support for caps on medical liability lawsuits grew from 57% in June to 62% now, despite the lack of serious tort reform proposals in any of the Democrats’ health care bills.

The poll continues to show that Americans are deeply concerned about the sea of debt the country seems awash in. A large majority (65%) believes Democrat proposals will increase the deficit while only 9% agree with President Obama that the deficit will shrink as a result. Little wonder, then, that the latest poll in this series finds the highest disapproval for Obama’s handling of the deficit, 55%, since he took office in January.

The extent of public concern about the deficit is apparent in the latest AP-GfK poll. When asked which they consider a higher priority, reducing the deficit or increasing government spending on health care reform, alternative energy, and education, a majority of Americans (50%) choose deficit reduction. And 79% in the poll say that increasing federal debt will harm the financial future of their children and grandchildren, a number which has remained steady since September of 2008.

It seems that President Obama’s speech has had little impact on public opinion about Democrats’ health care reform proposals compared with people learning about what is actually in their bills. And the one thing Americans seem to understand the best about these plans is that they will pile on even more debt at a time both the debt and the deficit are reaching record heights. This is not the responsible way to reform health care. However, the Democrats are expected to continue their previously planned track without regard to the will of the people. There may be some slight variation to entice the less conservative (RINO) senator to join them.

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