Say Anything Blog

That’s right.  Even Democrats are growing leery of this bill, and that’s not the least of the bad news from this poll:

Americans currently tilt against Congress’ passing healthcare legislation, with 49% saying they would advise their member to vote against a bill (or they lean that way) and 44% saying they would advocate a vote in favor of the bill (or lean toward advising a yes vote). …

Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to new healthcare legislation — 86% would advise their member of Congress to vote against it, while 12% would want their member to support it. Democrats, on the other hand, favor it by a 76% to 17% margin. Independents oppose passage of a bill by 53% to 37%.

Support among all three party groups has declined since the early October high — falling by 6 points among Democrats, 8 among independents, and 12 among Republicans. However, Democratic support recovered somewhat from early November (71%) to late November (76%).

Ed Morrissey adds more context:

Without leaners, the picture looks just as grim for ObamaCare advocates.  Only 35% of adults — not registered or likely voters — support the bill, while 42% oppose it. ...

Gallup doesn’t present any historical data on Obama’s approval rating on health care, but he’s upside-down by 13 points on this survey, 40/53.  Democrats approve of his work on the issue at 74%, but as Gallup notes, they approve overall at 80%.  Independents have Obama 25 points under water on health care, 33/58, a dangerous level of disapproval heading into the Senate debate.

Republicans overwhelmingly oppose the health care bill.  Independents overwhelmingly oppose the health care bill.  And Demcorats are less approving of the health care bill than they are of Obama as a whole.

That is an ugly, ugly picture.  The question is, do Democrats back down or do they push ahead to cram this bill through despite clear evidence that the public simply doesn’t want it?

My instincts tell me that the Democrats will be willing to lose their majorities (or at least a good chunk of them) in order to pass this bill into law.  Reality will likely be some watered down form of a health care bill passed.

After all, with a big majority in the House and 60 votes in the Senate and a Democrat in the White House they’re going to pass something.  The only question is, how bad will it be?  And how much will they pay for it at the polls?