REPUBLICANS MISINTERPRETING POLLS ON HEALTH CARE BILL

Right-wing commentator Fred Barnes (of the Weekly Standard and Fox News) published an OP-Ed piece in the Wall Street Journal on December 28,2009, titled "The Tyranny of the Majority Party" with a tag line "If Democrats insist on passing unpopular laws, they won't control Congress for long."

I replied with a comment: "Have you considered that if the Republicans continue to oppose popular and necessary legislation they will remain out of power for a long time?"

A WSJ reader, John Pound, promptly replied: "Which legislation would that be? Health Insurance Reform, opposed by 57% and unconstitutional (individual mandate)? Cap and trade, a shameless giveaway to the financial sector that will do nothing to control CO2 emissions? The $787B deficit enhancing payoff to the Dem supporters? Please help me here."

I replied: "What you fail to understand is that the majority opposing the present health care bill is comprised of intransigent Republicans, who want to do nothing, and Democrats, disappointed that the bill doesn't go far enough. A mid-December CNN poll showed 42% favoring the bill, with another 13% opposing the bill because it wasn't liberal enough. Accordingly, 55% favor health care reform that is equally or more liberal than the proposed bill, substantially more than the 39% who oppose the bill because it is too liberal. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll has a headline approval/disapproval ratio of 32%/47%, with more respondents (45%) saying they disapprove of the removal of the public option than approve of removing it (42%). A CBS poll taken in June showed 72% favoring a public option. A November poll by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundations shows that 77% think an overhaul of the nation's health care system is important for recharging the economy."

"The message is clear: a majority of Americans want meaningful health care reform. Moreover, the 13% opposing the bill because it wasn't liberal enough are not going to vote Republican. So, as I stated, Republicans continuing to run on an obstructionsit, "do-nothing" platform opposing popular and necessary health care reform will be outvoted by the majority of Americans who want reform."

"I happen to agree with you on Cap-and-Trade. A stiff carbon tax would be better, reducing pollution, greenhouse gasses, dependence on foreign oil, trade deficits and dependence on foreign capital."

"As for Republican outrage at the deficits being run up by Obama, that's rich! Spare me your righteous indignation. The largest deficits in history were rung up by Reagan and the two Bushes. Dick Cheney informed us "Deficits don't matter." Now all of a sudden Republicans have gotten religion on fiscal policy? I don't think so. The first tranche of bailout money, exceeding $700 billion, was requested by G.W. Bush and his Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulsen, who saw the necessity of federal intervention to prevent the economy from melting down into another Great Depression. Obama is simply doing what has to be done to keep the economy afloat by filling in the void in demand created by shell-shocked consumers and businesses, until exports take up the slack. It is the height of hypocrisy for Republicans to whine about the unpleasant but necessary measures Obama is forced to take to clean up the mess created during the Republicans' watch. Does that help?"