63% of Americans Want Lawmakers to Keep Working on Health Care Reform
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
February 10, 2010 5:09pm CST
Everyone doesn't agree on who's to blame or what the plan should include, but nearly 2/3 of the Americans polled in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll want the both parties to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform with nearly six in 10 saying the Republicans aren't doing enough to forge compromise with the President. 56% of independents say the Republicans are "too unbending" while 50% say that of President Obama.
The question was, "Do you think lawmakers in Washington should keep trying to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan, or should they give up on a comprehensive health care reform plan?
63% overall, 88% of Democrats, 56% of independents and 42% of Republicans say they should keep trying with 34% overall, 8% of Democrats, 39% of independents and 55% of Republicans say they should give up.
What do YOU think? Also, do you think a compromise ever CAN be reached between the two parties?
Annie
: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2010/02/americans_spread_the_blame_whe.html?wpisrc=nl_polalert
3 people like this
6 responses
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
10 Feb 10
I think they should both keep working on it. But just because Obama says he is willing to meet them "half way" does not mean Pelosi and Reid will. And before Obama can sign it into law it has to be passed by congress and the house. Which will take congress working together.
They have been too stiff on both sides. Pelosi and her whole "we won the election so we get to write the bill" attitude also helped to kill this bill. They had meetings about it and refused to let the Republicans into them. Pelosi has NOT been bipartisan at all. She also cut out the American public from the process. She wanted the bill written her way and cramped down all of our throats wether we liked it or not. Which ticked off alot of Americans. We want to KNOW exactly what is going on with this bill BEFORE it is voted on.
To be fair neither have a lot of the Republicans. They have been "if we can kill this bill than we can hurt Obama and his admin". So some of them have not been willing to discuss a lot because they don't want it to pass no matter what because of political cheap shotting.
Both sides need to grow up and work together and get it done.
That means both sides bending and meeting in the middle. Not one side bending more than the other.
Do you honestly think congress is going to be able to do that? I have little faith left in them. A decent healthcare overhaul bill is possible...with reasonable politicans. But we dont' have reasonable politicans...so I don't know if it can be done.
2 people like this
@RobtheRock (2433)
• United States
11 Feb 10
I agree too. I know Obama will fight all the way for it. Pelosi is part of the problem. No, we don't have reasonable politicians. It seems financing is the hurdle and both houses of Congress should be able to come to some intelligent compromise close to what Obama wants.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
12 Feb 10
I hope, if nothing else works, they can be SHAMED into it. The President calls for a health care summit to be televised live, which is what I thought many people, including the Republicans in Congress, wanted, right? You'd think they'd jump on it but instead they first set "pre-conditions" for them to show up and then they start using this buzz word all over the right-wing media that it might be a "trap" set by Obama. Come on, if it's on live TV, how can it be a trap? If either side tries any funny business it will be in front of whomever is interested in watching.
I don't like the "We won the election so we get to write the bill" attitude either but at the same time, where does the party that LOST get off thinking they shouldn't have to give an inch? Most of what the Republicans have been harping about is already in one or another of the two bills that have been passed. I'm not saying either of those bills will or should pass unchanged but I just think it's time these supposed adults start acting like it instead of worse than middle school kids!
Annie
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
11 Feb 10
One of the problems with polls is that you do not know who the sample is. It was pointed out during the Clinton scandal that a majority of Americans thought he should remain in office and the investigation was politically driven. Later it was disclosed that the polling sample was Washington Post readers. It would be the same as putting too much into the polls that Bill O'Reilly or Glen Beck run on their shows.
You get different result if you interview across section of Registered voters vs Likely to Vote vs the general public.
This is the first poll to show this while all the other polls show different results.
I would agree with the comment made on the web site that with total control over both houses and the White House the question is why it was not passed. The Republicans could do nothing to stop it, it was the Democrats that stopped the process.
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
14 Feb 10
Why didn't the Washington Post print the full poll results. For example 58% of Americans favor smaller government with fewer services.
The voting was put in there to show how they select samples. What if they selected only people with out insurance or people who had premium plans? what if you excluded people who worked for Insurance companies from the survey. One of the most famous polls is the Truman Dewey race. They used a telephone poll and at that time only the upper middle class and rich had phones and they were mostly republicans. The final reason to ask if people vote or not is that people who vote tend to be more knowledgeable of the issues.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
12 Feb 10
The majority of Americans DID believe Clinton should remain in office! I know alot of Republicans and most of them weren't Clinton supporters but none of them believed he should be removed from office.
Regarding this poll, are you saying most polls show most Americans think health care reform should be forgotten or put off for another decade or two? I don't know of anyone personally who believes THAT either. I don't really see how it matters whether someone votes, is registered to vote or has never voted in this kind of poll because it affects everyone.
Annie
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
18 Feb 10
I don't know. I'm beginning to wonder if that crowd in Washington can get together on anything. If they can, I would certainly like to see it be healthcare. I consider it a disgrace that a country like this one with state of the art healthcare is failing so many of her own people. Arab shieks and others with big bucks from foreign countries continually fly into some of the elite teaching hospitals in Philadelphia for treatment while little old ladies from South Philly can't get HMO referrals to those same hospitals.
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
11 Feb 10
"Reform" is not "one-payer system" or governmental takeover. Republicans know which reforms they are for, and they aren't the reforms that Obama seeks. The American people don't want the health care "reform" drafted by the Democrats. Obama has said that he must have certain things in the bill. Most of those things are the ones that the voters object to. Compromise is not on Obama's agenda, and so I don't think there will be one. The Republicans would be foolish to agree to any bill that simply manages to include a few ideas they propose but is still overwhelmingly the same bill that was originally proposed. There's no up side to that for them. I think they should scrap the whole thing and start over, not start trying to compromise on the bills they have. They need to do the things that will really reduce costs - tort reform, allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines, etc. Obama could benefit by being more yielding on some of the issues, only 36% approve of his handling of health care reform.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
12 Feb 10
"A few ideas" the Republicans have proposed are already in the bills that have been passed but that's neither here nor there. I don't think anyone has said they're going to have a summit with both parties only to keep the bills as they are. I guess I somehow missed the one that's a one-payer system or a "government take-over". What I last remember were bills that really benefited the health insurance companies more than the people. That was to try to appease a few Republicans whose agenda wasn't simply to "break" the President.
I think what you're really saying is that compromise isn't on the GOP's agenda so unless they don't get 100% of what they want they won't go along with any reform. I actually remember a time when nobody from either party ever really expected to get all of what they wanted, now we have a minority party who believes elections don't matter at all, not unless they're in power. I don't think either party should ever get 100% of what they want with the other getting nothing on any issue, don't get me wrong, but these games being played now aren't doing anyone any good.
Annie
@Rollo1 (16679)
• Boston, Massachusetts
12 Feb 10
While it may be true that Americans want health care reform, a poll from this week found that 61% of them want Congress to scrap the existing bills, not work on compromise. 55% of them don't want Congress to start drafting a new reform bill until after the mid-term elections. The voters don't want this Congress to do anything at all on health care, they want to wait until they've voted in new representatives. They don't trust these bozos to do health care reform. Compromise on the existing bills will get them all voted out- Dems and Repubs - people don't want that.
@bestboy19 (5478)
• United States
11 Feb 10
The American people asked for health care reform. Instead of telling us what we want, it's time Washington started listening to the people . If the parties don't give the people what they want, what difference would a compromise make?
