Pajamas Media » Is Health Care Reform Popular? The Democrats and the Polls Disagree

Pajamas Media » Is Health Care Reform Popular? The Democrats and the Polls Disagree: "If I had a nickel for every half-truth or outright lie spoken by the Democrats on the floor of the House in the hours leading up to passage of the health care reform bill, I’d be able to eat at 7-Eleven for a month. The assault on veracity was truly brutal, but what I found most alarming was not the Democrats’ attempt to build up their bill and diminish the opposition. Instead, it was the utter contempt they showed for their roles as “representatives.”

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas said that she was “standing with America and voting for America.” Rep. John Larson of Connecticut stated: “It is at the very core of all that America stands for.” Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland asserted: “This bill is not about partisanship, but it is about the American people.” Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut urged her House mates to “vote for history, vote for America today.”

When one looks beyond the torrent of populist rhetoric though, a much different picture emerges. The polling data depicts a very different portrait of the views of the American people on the Democrats’ health care reform proposals.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll (Oct. 30-Nov. 1) asked the question: “From everything you have heard or read so far, do you favor or oppose Barack Obama’s plan to reform health care?”

In their most current iterations prior to the House vote, the following polls asked a similar question: NBC News/Wall Street Journal (Oct. 22-25), ABC News/Washington Post (Oct. 15-18), CBS News/New York Times (Sep. 19-23), Associated Press /GfK (Oct. 1-5), Rasmussen Reports (Oct. 30-31), Pew Research Center (Sep. 30-Oct. 4), Quinnipiac University (Sep. 29-Oct. 5), and Ipsos/McClatchy (Oct. 29-Nov. 1)."