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On health care, Obama tries winning by whining
By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
08/06/09 3:21 PM EDT
A new poll from CNN shows that "[l]ess than a quarter of Americans with private health insurance think that [President] Obama's proposals would help them personally. Most people on Medicare and Medicaid also don't think that the Obama plan will help them," either.
A new poll from Quinnipiac finds that 41 percent believe Obama's plan will hurt the quality of health care in the United States, and 14 percent believe it will make no difference. Only 39 percent believe it will improve the quality of health care.
Similar, disappointing numbers for ObamaCare are cropping up in several polls -- by NPR, by Rasmussen, and by Gallup.
Despite this, the White House is whining about the presence of opposition. Its spokesman has tried to characterize the opposition to Obama's plan, manifesting itself daily in congressional town hall meetings and protests, as "astroturf" -- that is, fake grassroots and rent-a-mobs. Nancy Pelosi has stated that opponents of ObamaCare show up at meetings "carrying swastikas." ThinkProgress sent out a newsletter decrying ObamaCare opponents for "Swiftboating town hall meetings"
Surely the opposition to Obama's health insurance reform bill is organized. But that doesn't mean it's fake. What does it say when a group like FreedomWorks can pack normally soporific town hall meetings with warm bodies, just by sending out an email to its list? It means that large numbers of people are suddenly getting involved when they may not have cared as much before. If the White House doesn't like that, maybe the president should begin addressing people's concerns about the cost and effect of his plan, instead of skirting them and repeating platitudes and talking-points when he discusses the issue in public.
In addition to citizens, organized or not, lobbyists and special interests are getting involved, too -- mostly on the side of ObamaCare. Lobbyists, HMOs and Pharmaceutical industry donors have given more than $4 million to Democratic congressmen this year, our own Tim Carney reports -- twice as much as they have given to Republicans.
Unless you want to suggest that the people showing up at town halls are actually receiving cash payments, they are one true sign that people are upset at what they're seeing. And that's what the polls suggest, too.
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