Voters Back Obama Over Republicans on Health Care, Poll Finds

[mpicky]

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Months of Republican attacks on President Barack Obama’s health-care proposals appear to have hurt the party, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

The survey found 64 percent of voters disapproving of the way Republicans in Congress are doing their jobs, with 25 percent approving. Also, 53 percent had an unfavorable opinion of the party in general, while 25 percent rated it favorably.

The performance of Democratic lawmakers was disapproved of by 56 percent, with 33 expressing approval. For the party in general, 46 percent expressed disapproval, 38 percent approval.

Asked who they trusted to do a better job on the health- care issue, 47 percent said Obama, 31 percent said the Republicans. The president’s overall approval rating was 50 percent, unchanged from a similar survey in late July and early August.

“President Barack Obama’s approval rating has held at 50 percent over the past two months of high-intensity debate on health care and other issues,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Hamden, Connecticut-based university’s polling institute. “And while the spotlight is on the president, Republicans are taking a public-opinion pounding.”

At the same time, voters disapproved of the way Obama was handling health care, 51 percent to 41 percent. His health-care plan was opposed by 47 percent, supported by 40 percent.

Public Option

The poll found voters support a government-run plan to compete with private insurers 61 percent to 34 percent. Obama backs creating such a program, which has been the focus of much of the health-care debate in Congress. House and Senate Democrats are divided over the proposal, known as the public option, while most Republicans oppose it.

The survey of 2,630 voters was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 5 and has an error margin of plus-or-minus 1.9 percentage points.

The intensity of the health-care debate was illustrated during Obama’s Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress on the subject when Representative Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, interrupted him with a call of “you lie.” Some Republicans also have accused Obama of proposing “death panels” to force senior citizens to end their lives sooner, a claim that the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Factcheck.org called “simply not true.”

The survey found voters support having businesses pay for employee health insurance, 73 percent to 23 percent. The poll respondents were more closely divided on whether Americans should be required to buy health insurance, as Obama wants. The proposal was backed by 50 percent, opposed by 45 percent.

Obama has said he won’t sign a health-care bill if it is projected to add to the federal budget deficit. In the poll, 71 percent said they expect any measure that emerges from Congress would increase the deficit, while 19 percent said they believe it wouldn’t.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated yesterday that the Senate Finance Committee’s version of health- care legislation would reduce the deficit by $81 billion over 10 years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20...g/aw2pami0gqru

[Aunt Sponge]

I wish everyone could abandon partisan-views ... I think it clutters up things.

(speaking for myself) If i was to take a poll I wouldn't be putting myself in it as a republican - and I'd be for some things, and against others ... yet I'd probably be catagorized as a republican OR they might conclude that my views have been affected BY the republican-efforts...and for me neither is true.

BUT - a note on polls in general - people's views tend to slide the longer time goes by. It's found in almost every polled statistic in which hte poll is repeated over a period of time. There is always a dip in support no matter what the issue is, for a variety of reason ... mainly pointing to the fact that the longer something IS an issue - the more people turn against it, not out of agreement/disagreement - but out of a loss of interest.

[mpicky]

I think it is interesting that after months of Republicans bashing this plan, using fear and non truths, that the majority of Americans still support it. Republicans have even said that Americans don't support it.

I don't worry about that 25%, that is the 25% that thought Bush did a god job.

[Aunt Sponge]

Well, to be blunt, I think the majority of Americans don't know what's in the bill - or anything for that matter. Most people drift quite unconcerned with such things through their whole life and turn a blind eye to everything that requires a bit of thought to grasp.
It's ironic that this same "I don't understand it, so I'm against it" also goes along with the war against terrorism and so many other things that people side on and are adamate about.

Most people are pure idiots - a lot of us, here, will agree with that. I know you do, for sure.

So - some base their beliefs on fear-mongering and lies without desiring to find hte truth.
Others base their beliefs on popularity and a blind sense of partisanship without desiring to find the truth.
(All ends of the issue are guilty of these things to some degree - it's a shared fault, not just being pegged to one side or another. Most people are just supporting Obama - makes senes considering that it took a majority vote to get him into office. So that's practically a given.)

This is why we have comedians, actors and other entertainers as being "iconic" people jumbled in with politics instead of just people whose lives have centered around learning, finding and reporting the truth.

But what's more interesting in all of this is the unreported statistics - the % of people who did vote for Obama and are not in support of this and other issues that he's siding on.
In fact, brushing partisan drama aside, I think this is the key to seeing how he's really doing in people's opinions.

Most people will pick a side and stick with it, not many people will jump ship over such a serious issue, especially when their support is what built the ship to begin with.

Sorry - look at me being all philosophical and analytical.

[mpicky]

If you look at the numbers, it isn't blind partisanship, except the 25%.

Only 52% of the people voted for Obama, yet 61% of them are for a public (pubic) option.

If you look at earlier numbers, it seems that the Republican tactic hurt them and helped Obama.

[Aunt Sponge]

I talk too much Half of my lengthy post didn't really apply to the subject at hand.

Yep - the numbers have slid uphill, lol, though I doubt that's what you'll hear if you tuned into Rush.