Chart of the Day
The latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll is out and the news is pretty good, actually:
We’ve apparently recovered from the Summer of Spittle as The President got back into the game, as real bills came closer to closure, as the lies repubs were telling about the bills got sorted. Interesting findings from the poll above:
- Republicans and political independents became markedly more pessimistic about health reform in August, but those viewpoints softened in September. While 49 percent of Republicans say their family would be worse off if health reform passes, this is down from 61 percent in August. The percentage of independents saying they would be worse off fell from 36 percent in August to 26 percent this month. […]
- Fifty-seven percent of the public — including 56% of independents — say the GOP is opposing reform plans more for political reasons than because they think reform will be bad for the country. […]
- Fifty-seven percent of the public say they would support “having health insurance companies pay a fee based on how much business they have” and 59 percent would support “having health insurance companies pay a tax for offering very expensive policies.” In both cases, Republicans are evenly divided while Democrats and political independents tilt in favor. […]
- Seniors are still less convinced than others that health reform will benefit them, but they too have become less pessimistic since August. The share of seniors who think their family would be better off if reform passes climbed 8 percentage points from August, from 23 percent to 31 percent. Twenty-eight percent thought they would be worse off, and 33 percent said it wouldn’t make a difference. Fifty-five percent of seniors said they were ‘confused.”[…]
If anything, this indicates that Democrats do not need to be overly cautious here, and getting something done in November ought to be possible. It also means that the wingnuts will likely ramp up the scare tactics aimed at your grandparents too.
It also means that Democrats should do more to educate seniors about health care reform. Of course it will be hard to sell how great it will be for them when Carper helped kill one of the provisions which would help them.
There is another good reason to bring seniors up to speed on the truth about, and worthyness of, reform — 2010. Older people are more likely to vote in mid-term elections than are many of the first-time, younger, and minority voters who helped Democrats last year. If Grandmom and Grandad understand that health care reform is a good thing that will help them, and not a plot to kill them or to have the government swoop in and mess up their Medicare, they’ll be more likely to support Democratic candidates (at least the ones who actually do vote for reform).