The American People’s Message: Start Over on Health Care
In case you hadn’t seen, Gallup is out with a new survey today analyzing the health care debate in the wake of Sen.-elect Brown’s victory on Tuesday evening. A clear majority (55%) believe Congress should “suspend work on the current health care bill” being worked on and consider more bipartisan solutions. By contrast, only 39% want Congress to continue working to pass the existing legislation. A definitive 56-37% majority of independents – a demographic group critical to the Brown victory – support starting over, as do more than one quarter (26%) of Democrats.
Likewise, only 32% believe passage of health care reform should be Congress’ “top priority;” a strong majority believe that Congress should address other problems first (46%) or do not view health care as a major legislative priority (16%). With unemployment remaining at 10%, and more than 2.7 million jobs lost just since President Obama signed the $787 billion “stimulus” bill, many may view bringing jobs back into the economy as a larger priority than passing tax increases to fund massive entitlement expansions.
In Massachusetts and across the nation, the American people have spoken, calling on Democrats to abandon their government takeover of health care. The question remains: Will Democrats heed the people’s call?