When Nancy Pelosi said that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had to be passed so the public could see what was in it, she probably wasn’t expecting either of these (here and here) reactions.
Investors Business Daily reports:
A Quinnipiac University poll last week found 52% of Americans want ObamaCare scrapped. That's up from 44% last May. Meanwhile, just 39% want to keep it, down from 45%. Even one in five Democrats now says Congress should repeal the law.
That hasn't kept liberals from calling ObamaCare foes idiots, which is what Democratic Party head Debbie Wasserman Schultz did when asked about the poll.
Ms. Wasserman Schultz certainly knows how to curry favor with the voters, no?
When you get down specifically to swing states, the news is even bleaker for the smart people.
A new USA Today poll of battleground states finds that a clear majority of registered voters regard the passage of Obamacare as "a bad thing" and want it repealed if a Republican is elected president in November.
On the issue of whether Obamacare is constitutional, a matter that the Supreme Court takes up March 26,when oral arguments on the matter begin, voters in swing states “stand overwhelmingly” with those who say the law is unconstitutional. Three of four voters (including the majority of Democrats) told pollsters that they believe the law to be unconstitutional. This indicates that, if the Court overturns the legislation, the public will in all likelihood be quite accepting of the ruling.
But the most interesting facet of the story is revealed in this anecdote:
Thursday night at the mansion of Dallas Mavericks star Vince Carter in Orlando, Obama bragged about the law to a crowd of about 70 campaign contributors who had paid $30,000 each to attend.
"We were able to pass a health care bill that is already providing 2.5 million young people insurance who didn't have it before, and by the time it's fully implemented, will give 30 million people health insurance," the president told the audience gathered at Carter's indoor basketball court.
Although touting the Affordable Care Act is part of Obama's standard pitch at political events such as that one, at larger presidential events, he is more likely to be focused on proposals to foster jobs or promote education. In the State of the Union address in January, he referred to the health care law in only two sentences, almost in passing.
Yes, even President Obama knows that his signature achievement is unpopular with the American public.
It is his elephant in the living room and Republicans really are idiots if they don’t keep the focus on this issue.