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Excusing Away Opposition
to ObamaCare Part Three of Three By Dave Andrusko "I doubt the average
person really knows what has been implemented," Gary Pickens,
chief research officer at Thomson Reuters, said in a statement.
"They just know there is a lot of talk and there has been a lot
of negative publicity."
In Part One of TN&V today, I've included an excerpt from a wide-ranging article that appears in the August/September edition of National Right to Life News. Among other topics, it talks about a new bill that would permanently bar subsidies for abortion in all federal programs. Support for the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" (H.R. 5939) was also the subject of the August 20 letter sent by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops [www.nrlc.org/NewsToday/Dinardo22.html] I thought of this important new bill when I read the Reuters story, mentioned above. The core of the story was not an objective explanation of why "Americans are more worried about losing access to health services this summer than they were two seasons earlier, before health reform was enacted,"but an attempt to explain the poll results away--i.e., the "public doesn't understand," and/or worry is a reflection of "many public criticisms," and/or Americans expected healthcare Nirvana yesterday. Let me quickly mention two considerations, rather than get mired in the muck and mire of polling data. First, granted, most Americans don't know the details of ObamaCare (formally known, by the way, as the "Affordable Care Act"), but neither did most of Congress when it enacted this abomination. But the electorate DOES understand the Big Picture: this is a fiscal time bomb waiting to go off, with every sign pointing toward rationing, and is a law honeycombed with abortion-promoting provisions. Second, the growing momentum to repeal ObamaCare would be even worse for Democrats if the law did not include non-controversial provisions everybody agreed should be part of any reform package. As it is, "Pew Research found that in July, adults disapproved of the new law 47%-35%, worse than the 44%-40% disapproval in its April survey. A CBS News July poll found that 36% approved of the law, while 49% opposed it" [www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Aug10/nv081210.html]. Opposition to ObamaCare is not ill-informed or a matter of pique or a passing fancy. Instead it reflects a continuation of the public's thoughtful skepticism that existed throughout the debate over passage. Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. |
