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A new poll is out today from the Washington Post, the guardian of DC beltway conventional wisdom. And guess what? The public health insurance option is overwhelmingly popular. Even the Post can’t bury the lede, they ran with the headline: “Public option gains support: CLEAR MAJORITY NOW BACKS PLAN.”
The poll confirms everything other previous polling has shown:
- The public health insurance option is popular: 57% support it while only 40% oppose it
- The tax on health care benefits is unpopular: Only 35% support it while 61% oppose it
Now, the conventional wisdom says that taxing health benefits should be part of a health care bill, and a public health insurance option shouldn’t, as they are in the Finance bill. The reasoning is that these things will make a health care bill bipartisan. But guess what? The Post polled that question, too, and the American people could care less about bipartisanship.
Both Greg Sargent and Jon Walker note it:
Which of these would you prefer –- (a plan that includes some form of government-sponsored health insurance for people who can’t get affordable private insurance, but is approved without support from Republicans in Congress); or
(a plan that is approved with support from Republicans in Congress, but does not include any form of government-sponsored health insurance for people who can’t get affordable private insurance)?
Prefer government-sponsored insurance: 51%
Prefer Republican support: 37%
When faced with the choice that may face the Senate – pass a public health insurance option or get a Republican vote or two – America wants the public option more than they want bipartisanship.
These poll numbers, coming from the voice of the establishment, should make it absolutely clear that the Beltway wisdom is wrong. The American people don’t care about making the Senate’s life easier, they care about results. Bipartisanship doesn’t matter, but policy does.
The reform people want is real reform, with a public health insurance option and no taxing of health benefits. Bipartisanship only matters to a minority. Eventually, even the conventional wisdom has to catch up to reality.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
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3 Comments
Earth is calling but will they take the call. It is hard to overestimate how isolated from reality those in office can get. We have to keep hitting them with the facts, no matter how much money the Insurance cartel gives them it does nothing if they don’t have voters.
The whole bipartisan nonsense is total bs. I think that the White House and Reid have been using the effort to get Sen. Olympia Snowe’s vote as a shield for the fact that they’re doing nothing to push the real asses: the Blue Dog, Conservadem, so-called, Democrats in the Senate.
The question is: WHY? Why not use their majorities in the House and Senate to advance a public health insurance option? What are Obama and Reid doing? If they screw this up, i.e. fail deliberately for some unknown reason, Reid will just be finished. But what is the Obama Administration hoping to gain by quietly blocking a public health insurance option, when it’s the right thing to do and so popular?
My best guess so far is that they will do it, but that they are trying to push their biggest achievements back to the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 in order to create new momentum for Nov 2010.
They don’t want the insurance companies to start giving all of their campaign-donation budget back to the Republicans. They want to keep the money and still get the votes. We’ll see how that works out.