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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Support For Obamacare Waning With General Public

(Cartoon by Eric Allie, via Townhall)

A couple of polls discussed yesterday showed the American populace learning more about Obamacare and becoming concerned, causing a drop in support for Obama and his health care plan which would socialize medicine.

Today we see more polls showing the same pattern.

New York Times/CBS News poll finds:

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. The percentage who describe health care costs as a serious threat to the American economy — a central argument made by Mr. Obama — has dropped over the past month.


The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows a plurality of Americans call the plan a "bad idea."

Support for President Barack Obama's health-care effort has declined over the past five weeks, particularly among those who already have insurance, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found, amid prolonged debate over costs and quality of care.

In mid-June, respondents were evenly divided when asked whether they thought Mr. Obama's health plan was a good or bad idea. In the new poll, conducted July 24-27, 42% called it a bad idea while 36% said it was a good idea.


This is why forcing the politicians to wait before jamming a bill down our throats was the right thing to do, now the public is getting an idea of what is written into Obamacare and they aren't happy with the information they are processing.

This is also why Obama has been pushing so hard to get a vote passed in the House and Senate.

So the American people would not have a chance to understand the plan and would not be able to contact their politicians in time to stop it.

That didn't work, despite Obama's massive push and the numbers are showing the American public is smarter than Obama gave them credit for.

MSNBC:


The health insurance divide


That’s especially true on the issue of health care reform. As Congress works on its legislation and as Obama campaigns to get an overhaul enacted, 42 percent now say that the president’s plan is a bad idea, which is a 10-point increase since last month. Thirty-six percent say it’s a good idea.

In addition, 39 percent — a plurality — believe that Obama’s plan would result in the quality of their health care getting worse. That’s 15-point jump since April.

And just 41 percent approve of the president’s job on health care, which is nearly identical to Bill Clinton’s scores from 1994, when he failed to get Congress to pass health care reform.


In order to weed through the bill, the Senate Finance Committee has been working overtime to try to come to a compromise that would see support from all sides to get some type of reform passed and The Hill reports that the compromises being reached are angering liberals, even using the title "Health deal sparks fury on the left."

A House leadership deal with Blue Dogs and an aggressive marketing push by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) shifted the healthcare debate sharply toward centrist positions Wednesday, sparking threats of rebellion from the left.

The day’s events left the Senate Finance Committee’s emergent bill as the most viable vehicle on Capitol Hill, but also made clear that House Democrats are still riven by bitter disagreements. Democrats postponed a floor vote until after the August recess, meeting a top demand of centrist Blue Dogs.

The Blue Dogs’ deal, which cut $100 billion from the healthcare reform price tag, was instantly denounced by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), co-chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who said, “It’s unacceptable. We’re not going to vote for anything that doesn’t have a robust public plan.”

Liberals aimed to win 50 signatures on a letter to their leaders opposing the deal to make it clear they could defeat the healthcare bill on the floor.

“Fifty is our threshold,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a co-chairman of the caucus. “That’ll kill anything.”

The White House and Democratic leaders moved quickly to try to quell the liberal insurrection. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called a group of liberals to her office in the mid-afternoon, and Democrats postponed plans to continue a stalled markup of the bill by the Energy and Commerce Committee until Friday. Instead, they held a caucus meeting to answer member questions.

“It’s more important to let members ask questions, raise concerns,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the chairman of Energy and Commerce.


Tensions are rising, arguments and brewing and leadership is trying to put fires out as they threaten to burn out of control.

Some headlines from today, via Memeorandum:

The Politico with "Liberals gag over health deal."

The Hill with "Waxman confident Blue Dog compromise will pass."

The Politico with "Henry Waxman wins breakthrough on health bill."

In going through the discussions in the blogosphere at the moment, the far left is truly on the rampage that the Senate Finance Committee is daring to try to make the plan more cost efficient and tamper down the "public option" (socialized medicine).

The delay in the vote is good, it gives the politicians time to actually read the deal being made, it gives the American public time to understand what is written into the deal and make their voices heard and according to the polls, the more they hear, the less they like the proposals being pushed at them.

The far left will spend the august recess pushing their more liberal members to fight any compromise coming from the Senate Finance Committee and those against Obamacare need to do the same, by contacting their own Representatives and Senators and making their voices heard.

The constituents of the Blue Dogs also need to contact them and show them support so they do not get railroaded by the far left progressive politicians.

The delay may be good, but the fight has just begun and the American people cannot sit back and let the chips fall where they may, because whatever bill gets passed will have something each of you has to live with for a long time to come.

With that said, here is your reminder:

Contact your Congressman, let them hear from you, loud and clear... NO Obamacare.

Then Contact your Senators and tell them the same thing.

If you live in a state with a so-called "blue dog" representative or Senator, then make sure you call to support them.

[Update] The little game of putting ona good show, getting these compromises written in and passing a bill just so Pelosi and the House can shove all the crap back in, is being preempted by U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), who issued a statement and closed with this little tidbit:

“I also need commitments from Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, as well as the Administration, that the bipartisan agreements reached in the Finance Committee will survive in a final bill that goes to the President.”


If you get those commitments Senator, I suggest you make them put it in writing.