Poll: Obama drops on health care
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/07/20/art.bohand0720.gi.jpg caption="A new poll shows trouble for the president on health care."]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - As President Barack Obama begins a week full pushing for health care reform, a new national poll indicates the president is slipping on the issue.
Forty-nine percent of people questioned in an ABC News/Washington Post survey released Monday approve of the way Obama is handling health care. That's down four points from last month and down nine points from April. Forty-four percent disapprove, up five points from June and 15 points from April.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll is the third national survey to suggest that the president's approval rating on health care reform is under 50 percent, joining a CBS News poll and a Quinnipiac University survey.
The new poll indicates Obama still has a large advantage over Republicans on the issue. Fifty-four percent of those questioned say they trust Obama to do a better job handling health care than Republicans in Congress, with 34 percent putting more faith in Congressional Republicans than the president.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted July 15-18, with 1,001 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
What??? Congress hasn't passed the insurance/pharmaceutical lobby's healthcare plan yet? What are they waiting for? Have a nice day!
Of course Obama's numbers are dropping. The only concrete proposal he's made–or rather, Kathleen Sebelius made on his behalf this weekend–so far is the same tired old Democratic foolishness of taxing the "rich" to solve all of society's ills. According to the CBO, nothing the Democrats plan to do will save much in the health care system, and it won't lead to any better medical care–precisely to the contrary, in fact. All it will do is make one group of people pay the medical bills of another group–and I seriously doubt that those being screwed in taxes to that are simply going to sit back and quietly let it happen.
"From each according to ability, to each according to need," is an imbecilic philosophy that utterly ignores human nature. The only organisations that haven't realised that yet are Cuba, North Korea, and the Democratic Party.
(By the way, I'm not a Republican–gack!–I'm a Libertarian.)
It's a shame that USA as rich and powerfull Country failed to provide Universal Health Plan for all it's citizens.
As Canadian I am proud of our Health Insurance where every Canadian has fundamental right to health protection.
Those of your Republicans crying about COST, when decided to invade Iraque did not raised such question, Whom they protect?
Of course Big Insurance Corporations and Pharmaceutical Corp.,
just see who is lobbying against Pres. Obama's healts plan.
Tell your Republican representatives to stop pprotecting RICH and
POWERFULL and start taking care of those in need.
Every American shall support Pres. Obama on the issue of Health Care.
The constant yammering by the "opposers" will prevent us from getting done what is necessary. If this problem is not solved, we will look back on this time as another opportunity lost. Our leaders need to focus more on governing well and less on "electability." It seems that whenever they are elected and thus become incumbents, they immediately lose all courage.
"I will not increase your taxes, not one penny" -Obama campaign promise
"Healthcare reform will not increase federal spending" -Obama July 2009
This equates to the number of people who voted for McCain.......Surprise! I think it is amazing that 230 million with health care are compassionate enough to try to provide for the other 50 million even if it may cost them more!
Apparently the big money is winning this war ! They have gotten the lobbys's to work thier magic with the congress and senate. Why are we as so gullible to believe that the corporations can be heald accountable for thier actions when they OWN our elected officials.
I am very sad that we as a country cannot rise above this and get it doen. The costs are minor compared to the gain we will have if we get a universal health care program done.
An ounce of preception is worth a pound of substance. Progressively speaking..
I am glad they raised their definition of "rich" for this bill. If every bill through congress has a 200K/250K starting point for taxes people who make 190K/245K will not have any motiviation to work harder and add to the economy. They will also be motivated to "shelter" or worse, "hide" income.
These bills have to gradually move up the income scales so there is not a hard line in the sand between "us" and "them". (And I am not stating who is "us" or "them" as it is different for each person, and each perspective.) People from one side of the line should be motivated to move to the other side.
Of course it's down. There have been untold alarmist ads and tv commentators defending the status quo and most people don't care at all about forced bankruptcies due to medical costs or care denied to really sick people after the fact becuase of "preexisting conditions" because most people aren't sick right this minute and we have mostly learned to think only of ourselves, and only for the next five minutes. Somewhere we have lost the ability to take the long view, or to consider our neighbors as ourselves. Great Christian nation we have become....
It's about time the American people are getting smart! Obama is a fraud – and people are finally waking up. It is clear and evident that this man does not know what he is doing. And, I am sure, when everyone really looks at this health care bill – his polls will really drop. He is an arrogant, egotistical, self-serving fraud!
The Messiah is losing his touch!
I was a campaign worker for Obama and I don't believe him. He has backtracked on every major campaign promise. Instead of curbing job outsourced or ending the H1-B visa, he has increased them. Half of the announced "layoffs" aren't. They are part of an accelerating trend of outsourcing jobs and factories. After receiving bailout money, those Wall Street banks laid off their entire U.S. IT staff's, more than 50,000 workers. Then, they turned around and applied for an received more than 50,000 "emergency" H1-B visas and hired a bunch of cheap Indian guest workers. This year, Obama is on track for issue a record number of guest worker visas in spite of the fact that there are four unemployed U.S. citizens with qualifications to fill every one of those positions. Excuse me, excuse us, if we stopped believing in Obama and anything he says. He is hasn't kept his word, he LIED to us, and I, for one, am not so stupid as to believe anything more he has to say.
It comes a time when we all need to exercise some patients. Our country has fallen on desperate and trying times, economically, financially. These variables are going to take awhile, these are not problems that are going to be solved overnight, these problems will not be solved with one answer, nor, with one idea to solve the issues. We are going to have to tweak was needs to be tweaked to upright this ship.
Polls will continue to drop in every aspect of the obama presidency.
He was a slick tongued salesman who committed fraud through unrealistic campaign promises and "change" that is not part of the American Agenda and ONLY HIS AGENDA of SOCIALISM.
obama has created an immense problem in the economy that never existed before his stimulus package.
When is this JERK going to WAKE UP TO REALITY?????
obama is a dictator and has the hot temper to prove it.
He has done nothing constructive so far, but has demanded his personal wishes be approved by Congress....i.e. Spend, Spend, Spend, Spend.
It is totally UN- AMERICAN and UN-DEMOCRATIC to TAX THE RICH to PAY FOR THE POOR.
This is a Democratic Government, not a 3rd World Socialist one, just in case you have forgotten, obama.
Guess he will throw a Really Big Temper Tantrum when his stupid and outrageous EXPENSIVE Health Care Bill is NOT PASSED.
Pelosi should be Impeached as one of the results of the Temper Tantrum!!
The House would be much better off without this Ignorant Radical Woman who doesn't even make sense when she speaks.
I hate to say, "I told you so....", but as America wakes up to what this guy is really all about, the slide in approval ratings will continue. You cannot drain the bank accounts of everyone that has a job and simply give away their life savings and EARNED income to subsidize everyone else. There have to be some limits. It just can't go on forever...
PLEASE READ!
We are all suckers if we let the special interests, paid lobbyists and crooked republicans and democrats fool us into thinking that health care reform is a danger to us. It is absolutely essential for so many reasons for our representatives in Washington to get this done.
Listening to people who trash our government is absolutely counter productive. We live in a country based on democratically elected representatives of the people themselves. The only thing wrong with our government is that lobbyists are allowed to pay for influence on Capitol Hill and change our elected officials into their representatives instead of ours. The biggest mistake Obama has made is not eliminating paid lobbyists on capitol hill before trying to tackle health care reform. I also really believe half the people on these blogs that attack health care reform are actually shills for these lobbyists and special interests, trying to manipulate public opinion any way they can.
Believe me, the health insurance and pharmaceutical companies have plenty of money to pay thousands of people to do just that. Unfortunately it seems to be working. The United States of Sheep are letting them buy public opinion just like they are buying our elected representatives. Please, help us all if we fail to get this done. It will likely be our last chance.
Don't about you, but the ideal that I must be forced into buying Obama care or have the IRS come after me strikes me as something Joseph Stalin would do.
Wow, the American people are FINALLY beginning to see the light! Prez HopeandChange is trying to ram this scam down our throats and he is finding opposition to it. Good!
The PROBLEM is that no one knows what Obama's health care plan IS.
Why not some details?
Is it like Medicare we have now for seniors? If so, then no one should complain. I love my Medicare!
If it is not like senior Medicare, then how does it compare to my kids' family medicare in Australia? If it is like family medicare, my kids love it!
So, give us some details, Obama!
The Obama plan is extremely vague. How could people support that?
With the millions the GOP is throwing against this issue, it's not really surprising. What most forget is this will be an Opt In system. NOT mandatory. I would never back a complete gvt. takeover. What most also forget is that taxpayers are already paying for the medical expenses of the uninsured through higher insurance premiums (some can't afford it, some can't even get insured due to pre existing conditions). These medical procedures are typically expensive because the uninsured wait until their problem becomes so severe now they require advanced medicine. What this is doing is creating more competition and providing affordable, preventative care which will drive down the cost of insurance for the rest of us.
I guess more Americans are waking up and paying attention to details.
This current bill in congress is scary. I don't want public health insurance shoved down my throat.
Yes, we need health care reform. But there is no good reason to shove it through Congress before the end of summer except to look good for the 2010 midterm elections. And a huge decision like this should not be debased or tainted by presidential or congressional politicking.
There is currently a push on to have lawmakers sign a pledge to both READ any health care bill that comes out (not too much to ask for) and to post any healthcare bill on the internet for 72 hours prior to voting so that constituents can read it. So far there are no Democrat takers on the pledge. What does this say for American democracy? So much for Obama's transparency! I stringly urge Sen Mary Landrieu D-LA to sign on to this pledge. I also urge anybody who reads this post to also post the names of their representatives and senators urging them to sign the pledge as well.