SA, if your position is that the evidence suggests that about half the country doesn’t like the bill, and the other half likes it, then you’re correct. But a more accurate statement would be, “Americans remain divided about what lawmakers should do, with 21 percent of the public favoring expansion of the health reform law, 19 percent wanting to leave it as is, a quarter wanting to repeal parts of the law, and 24 percent wanting the entire law repealed.”
But what you said is “If there’s one thing the recent election showed, it’s that people are very unhappy at having this health care bill shoved down their throats.”
The problem with that statement is that the election didn’t show that because people didn’t vote for or against any particular policy, as you acknowledge. And your use of the term “people” in the context of a recent election showing something is a bit misleading, since it is only a minority of people who feel that way.
The truth, of course, is that the issue is tremendously complicated. Most people agree with the goals of the plan, and there is much disagreement about to what degree its unintended consequences will outweigh its benefits. A very large plurality of people want the bill kept and reformed. There is very little empirical support for the notion that any group other than hardcore Republicans is “very unhappy at having this health care bill shoved down their throats.”
The Wikipedia article on the Kaiser Family Foundation gives me a certain amount of pause as to it’s impartiality. To wit:
Notice that Mr. Fairhall does not deny that the KHN reporters seem to lean Democratic in political donations, he merely claims that it is an “editorially independent” part of KFF.
And so on and so on. The article is here if anyone want to read it.
Still, there is a lot of truth in what you say. The issues were complex and interwoven. This is why I said I don’t put a lot of faith in exit polls. Oftentimes people don’t know exactly why they’re voting a certain way, it’s a conglomeration of things. But over the course of the runup to the election I’ve read many times in even left wing news sites that many of the nation’s electorate resent very much what they perceive as a host of programs they either didn’t like or were unsure of being forced upon the country by Obama and Congress beginning virtually the day Obama took office. This, combined with the Rasmussen poll I referenced, has led me to believe that the majority of the country’s voters not only disapprove of the health care bill but also the stimulous package and the bank and automotive bailouts and feel they were foist upon the country against its will. This view is further supported by Nancy Pelosi herself, who encouraged Democrats in the House to vote for the health care bill “even if it costs them their jobs”. Obama, and probably even more so, the Congress, knew damn good and well that the electorate didn’t want the health care bill but they were determined to foist it off on us anyway. And these are the reasons I’ve come to believe that people think of the health care bill (and the other programs I mentioned) has been forced down their throats.
I agree that wait-and-see is the proper course of action. But it is clear to me that as things stand, the Democratic party won the health-care debate. The current situation (both legislative and political) is significantly more favorable to their goals than to the GOP goals.
My current belief is that the insurance companies have bought into the new system to a degree that will make significant repeal difficult, and make a repeal of just the individual mandate (the one part that actually makes their lives better) impossible. I believe one company (Cigna?) just today announced they oppose repeal. I can only imagine this resistance will be stronger in two years, as the exchanges begin to come online.
I definitely agree with the last part.
The first seems like exactly what the Democrats did: they got elected, then they passed legislation in line with their party’s ideals. Then they lost power, as is inevitable. Attempting to legislate with the goal of only winning the next election leads to wasted majorities (which is a common complaint I here from conservatives re: the early Bush years).
What percentage of the election was about health care and what percentage do you think was about the economy?
I would bet everything I own taht if we had a V shaped recovery, the tea party would have beena flash in the pan wand the Rwepublican aprty would have stayed out in teh wilderness for decades.
I doubt that this can be quantified in any hard-figures way. But the two issues are not in opposition - the Tea Party was in opposition both to the size of the federal government and the size of the deficit.
But this wasn’t an election in which only the Tea Party voted.
In fact, a poll today shows that only 39% support repealing or rolling back the health care law, while 58% would rather keep it or make more changes. Link.
Isn’t everybody?!