Will Democrats Listen to the American People?
Wanted to alert you to two additional developments ahead of tomorrow’s summit. First, you may have seen this CNN poll which shows that only one quarter of Americans want Congress to pass a health care bill similar to the current legislation – down five points from the 30% approval following Scott Brown’s election in mid-January – and the vast majority want Congress to either start over (48%) or stop working on health care entirely (25%). Interestingly, CNN reports that the poll has “nearly 4 in 10 Democrats saying Congress should start from scratch,” as do a majority (52%) of independents.
Also of note, a coalition of small business groups including NFIB and NAM released a letter today outlining their support for reforms that lower costs – which both the Senate and House bills do not do. The question for Democrats now becomes: Will they listen to struggling small business owners and the general public looking for a positive, incremental approach that focuses on lowering health costs for Americans, or insist on jamming through a government takeover of health care through the most partisan means possible?