Last week the Kaiser Family Foundation’s monthly tracking poll revealed that 51% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Obamacare, with only 34% of respondents feeling favorable toward the bill. The findings were especially telling considering that only 22% of respondents were self-identified Republicans.
Then earlier this week Rasmussen Reports bolstered these findings, unveiling that “most voters nationwide still favor repeal of the national health care law” (54%).
Many readers will remember that prior to the passage of the Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made the ridiculous comment, “We have to pass [it] so you can find out what’s in it.” Well, as far as I can tell it looks like the chickens are coming home to roost. Or, more accurately, Americans have found out “what’s in it.”
The first thing that has become apparent is that Americans recognize that a bill that provides everything for everybody just isn’t sustainable. Before even considering the impact ObamaCare will have on access to or quality of health care, it’s become clear that ObamaCare is going to cost the nation a fortune – a fortune, mind you, that we don’t have. As the Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon points out this week, “Even if the official spending projections are correct, ObamaCare will add another $1 trillion of new government spending during its first 10 years (actually during the first 6; another accounting gimmick).”
And as we’ve written about here at IWF numerous times, the government is planning on raising that revenue through an endless list of new taxes, including a series of sin taxes on legitimate businesses like tanning salons.
What’s more, as Cannon notes in an article yesterday, ObamaCare will result in the loss of “an estimated 800,000 jobs” – this at a time when unemployment hovers above 9%.
There are endless reasons to want to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with reforms that will actually lower the cost of health care, expand coverage to those who want insurance, and help improve the quality of care. But as more of the fiscal realities of this existing bill come to light – cost, taxes, loss of jobs – the public’s reaction is only going to grow more hostile toward this dreadful piece of legislation.