Lots of interesting stuff in the latest Gallup poll, including this bit on health care:
And on Obama's proudest achievement, his signature healthcare legislation, only 13% like the idea of keeping it as is. Everyone else favors minor changes, major changes or tossing out the entire thing.
Weren't we supposed to like Obamacare more and more as we got used to it? The poll also found that most Americans: want to expand domestic oil exploration and drilling; oppose a "path to legal status" for illegal immigrants; oppose more stimulus spending, even if it's called "investment" to "win the future"; and favor revising No Child Left Behind rather than tossing it. They also think the economy is still worsening and think tea party positions should be taken into account.
That 13 percent number makes it sound as if the whole country has suddenly turned against Big Government. That's a libertarian's fondest dream, of course, but I kind of doubt it's happened, so I looked around for a breakdown of the opposition:
The poll number that really matters, though, is from the latest Gallup/USA Today survey. It shows only 13 percent of Americans like the law as it is written.
The plurality in today's poll (32 percent) want the law repealed entirely. Twenty five percent want the law scaled back and 24 percent want it to be more liberal. So that's 57 percent who want less of the law compared to 37 percent who don't want any rollbacks.
That makes a little more sense and shows how basically divided we still are. I can understand the 24 percent who want the law to be even more liberal; they're idiots who still think the government is merely redistributing money and believe that the hollowing out of our load-bearing walls can continue forever, but I do understand them. And I ceretainly understand the 32 percent who want to dump the law, since I am a part of that group. But I can't fathom the 13 percent who like the law just fine "as it is written." Is there a single person in this country who even knows what the law is like "as it is written"?
