by Mark Silva
There's at least one message in the healthcare debate which President Barack Obama apparently has failed to drive home: His pledge that overhauling the nation's system of health delivery and insurance will not worsen an already record federal budget deficit.
"I've also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade. And I mean it,'' Obama said in a prime-time televised news conference last month.
The salesman is on the road again today, taking his case for his economic initiatives to Indiana.
But, in the results of a poll released today, 72 percent of the voters surveyed said they do not believe that Obama will keep his promise of overhauling healthcare without adding to the deficit. Only 21 percent of those surveyed by Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute . The survey of 2,409 registered voters taken July 27 - Aug. 3 carries a possible margin of error of 2 percentage points.
By a margin of 55-35 percent, voters surveyed by the university-based polling institute said they are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to an annul deficit that already has surpassed $1 trillion a year than they are that Congress will not act. And by a a similar margin - 57-37 - they say they healthcare reform should be scrapped if it adds significantly to the deficit.
"President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress appear to be losing the public relations war,'' Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, says of the findings. "That's a bad omen for the White House and congressional leadership as they tro to sell their plan to the country this month before the vote counting gets serious on Capitol Hill in September.
Yet there are other indicators that Americans are open to aspects of the reform that the president is promoting.
This poll, like others, has found that Americans are somewhat evenly divided over the question of the president's healthcare plan itself - with voters split by 39-41 percent over whether they think the president's plan will improve the quality of healthcare.
Americans were asked, in a CNN/Opinion Research Poll released today: From everything you have heard or read so far, do you favor or oppose Barack Obama's plan to reform healthcare. Fifty percent said they support it - 23 percent strongly and 27 percent only moderately. And 45 percent said they oppose it - 33 percent strongly and 12 percent only moderately.
The survey of 1,136 adults was conducted July 31- Aug. 3 and carries a possible 3 percent margin of error.
In the Quinnipiac poll, voters voiced support for several provisions of the president's plan - with 62 percent supporting the idea of giving people the option of a government insurance plan and just 32 percent opposing that; 61 percent supporting higher taxes for high-income taxpayers to pay for healthcare reform and 36 percent against that; and 54 percent supporting the idea of requiring businesses to provide insurance or pay the government and 38 percent opposing that.
The numbers suggest that the president and congressional leaders have some ground on which to build support for the plans that they hope to take to votes of the House and Senate in September, but a lot more selling to do on the question of the deficit.
Healthcare reform, Obama argues, will help get the deficit under control rather than worsening it.
"The biggest driving force behind our federal deficit is the skyrocketing cost of Medicare and Medicaid,'' he said in that news conference last month. "So let me be clear: If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit. If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket.''
The president is back on the road today, in the recreational vehicle manufacturing region of Elkhart, Ind., where unemployment has soared, to make his case fo economic stimulus -- which, he contends, includes a necessary healthcare reform.
Comments
In a recession, while the rest of us are tightening our belts, Obama goes on a spending spree. With borrowed money the Federal government doesn't have, and which we'll all have to repay.
And people are concerned.....
Who'da thunk it?
Posted by: Change You Can Believe In | August 5, 2009 9:21 AM
How much money are the Healthcare Corporations throwing around, to defeat this reform !!? Why isn't that money going where it should be going, to pay for healthcare for the sick and the hurt. Also, how are they able to write the propaganda war off, as a business expense ? Come on, Congress, right this wrong. All that money that they are hiring inciters, of one kind or another, oh, I'm sorry, dissenters !! All that money that they are using to intimidate and scare America into submitting to the Insurance Corporations' way, or no way, should be ended, in its tracks. Meanwhile, they deny some poor soul the necessary healthcare, because those insurance bureaucrats don't think that procedure is necessary for that client's survival !! While they, the Healthcare Corporations, throw 100s of Millions of Dollars to defeat President Obama's healthcare initiative.
Even though, President Obama's healthcare initiative will save lives, we didn't hesitate to give Bush&Cheney, the Trillion or Two Trillion Dollars to kill and maim, our own men and women in uniform and maim and kill 100s of thousands innocent Iraqis !! That is not the sign of a healthy nation: One that will foster death and mayhem, instead of health and life. Come on, America, right this wrong. Give help to those that have been caught in the greedy combine of the Corporations of America. They have stolen our nation !! Don't let them get away with it!! It is time we took it back. Take back our Democracy.
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | August 5, 2009 10:16 AM
There is a very interesting post on Aug. 4 on Metafilter.com discussing this very subject. "Where do you get your health insurance". Take 10-15 minutes to read post and comments. Very few snarky comments, and several very well thought out comments that span the entire political spectrum, including overseas
Posted by: A Once and Future Skeptic | August 5, 2009 11:33 AM
Oh Don,
If ObamaCare is so great, where why aren't all the people in favor of it showing up at these town-hall meetings to express their interest in it?
Let me clue you in Don - many many people are happy with their current healthcare. The people showing up at these townhalls expressing their discontent are the people faced with paying for Obamacare - you know, TAXPAYERS!
If you're going to throw around falsehoods like insurance companies are "hiring inciters" please provide your proof.
I suppose it's easier on your brain to simply repeat the Obama/Pelosi/Durbin talking points on vilianizing insurance companies, discounting the "paid mobs" voicing discontent at townhalls, and Obamacare saving lives.
You are...what's the term that the Marxists used....oh yeah..."a useful idiot."
Posted by: Chris | August 5, 2009 12:48 PM
Of course voters are worried! Our goal should be to cover all individuals through private health insurance. We need to be advocates for greater transparency in both quality and price information - place both the decision making ability and healthcare dollars in the hands of the consumer. http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/takeaction/index.cfm?ID=40 .
Posted by: maura | August 5, 2009 4:13 PM
Isn't it ironic that the "community organizer" (i.e. professional rabble rouser) is starting to get a taste of what he and his ACORN toadies have dished out for years? Suck it up and take it like a man, you big whiner!
Posted by: The guy who hides behind false names (so sayeth Don) | August 5, 2009 4:57 PM
President barak Obama and democratic leaders of congress in some tensed about health care reform..
Posted by: wedding | August 6, 2009 5:44 AM
WHAT THE HEY?? If you want to sell me insurance, sell me auto, life, accident, or property insurance. DON'T TRY TO SELL ME HEALTH INSURANCE. THAT IS A RACKET DREAMED UP BY THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, WHO WON'T SELL HEALTH INSURANCE TO SICK PEOPLE, OLD PEOPLE, OR PEOPLE WHO HAVE A PRE-EXISTING CONDITION! WHERE IS THE PROFIT IN THAT?? MADOFF SHOULD BE IN CHARGE OF THAT RACKET! EVERYONE SHOULD BE ENTITLED TO HEALTH CARE. IF THE CITIZEN'S OF THIS COUNTRY DON'T GET NATIONAL HEALTH CARE, THEN NO ONE SHOULD BE ENTITLED TO HEALTH CARE PAID FOR BY THE TAX PAYER!! PERIOD!! THAT INCLUDES TEACHERS, POLICE, FIREMEN,POSTAL WORKERS, FEDERAL WORKERS, STATE WORKERS, LOCAL GOVERNMENT WORKERS, THE MILITARY AND ANYONE ELSE THEAT GETS HEALTH CARE PAID FOR BY THE TAXPAYER!! AND WHILE WE ARE AT IT, NO ONE SHOULD BE ENTITLED TO A PENSION PAID FOR BY THE TAXPAYER, PERIOD!! AND WE DON'T NEED A CO-OP, CONTROLLED BY THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, WHO WOULD STILL BE IN CHARGE OF OUR HEALTH CARE. What we need is a SINGLE PAYER government run plan, ELIMINATE THE HEALTH INSURANCE BUSINESS WHICH IS A SCAM AND A RACKET, I THOUGHT WE HAD RACKETEERING LAWS ON OUR BOOKS?? BULLDOZE THE EXISTING HEALTHCARE SYSTEM AND CONSTRUCT A NEW SYSTEM IN A FORWARD AND ON A MEASURED PACE TO GET IT DONE RIGHT, WITH OR WITHOUT THE RIGHT WING NUTS!! JUST REMEMBER THAT THE REPUBLICANS NEVER DO ANYTHING FOR THIS COUNTRY, THEY ONLY DO THINGS TO THIS COUNTRY!! OBAMA SHOULD CALL EVERYONE BACK FROM VACATION FOR A SPECIAL SESSION, TO WORK ON HEALTH CARE FOR ALL, UNTIL IT IS DONE, AND DONE RIGHT!! whiteagle38
Posted by: R Juneau | August 6, 2009 3:47 PM
RE : Chris
Unless you're sitting on your own yacht right now drinking Mojitos I don't think you need to be worried about being taxed for healthcare. I'm a healthy 29 year old self-employed individual, I had to apply for coverage 3 times this year, was first denied, then given an option for $700 a month, finally I had to lie on my application. I still have to pay a higher premium and can't even visit the doctor for the reason I have the higher premium. WE CAN NOT LEAVE PEOPLE BEHIND.
Posted by: Jessica | August 11, 2009 10:42 AM
Many of my conservative friends are complaining about the 100 billion dollar a year price tag to provide affordable health insurance to the 50 million or so Americans who have NO health insurance now.
I politely remind them that over the past 7 years they applauded the $100 billion dollars a year the Republicans borrowed from future generations to bring democracy to Iraq, to train their police force, to arm the Iraqi army, to rebuild their schools, bridges, and water supply, to get their electrical grid up and running.
So it's perfectly worth it to borrow from our children to "invest" in Iraq's future...but to use taxpayer money to help Americans here at home...well...that's "bad."
Posted by: Norris Hall | August 16, 2009 1:28 AM