A new Washington Post poll apparently shows that people want Congress to keep looking for a way to pass comprehensive health care reform. The graphic is rather striking:
This does not mean that the public wants Congress to pass any of the
current bills, though we don’t know yet, since the Post seems to be
dribbling out the numbers over a few days. But I’ll be surprised if
they get more “ayes” than “nays” on passing HCR in its current form,
which hasn’t happened
since Kaiser got a 42% favorable a month ago. No, I’m betting that
what the public, God bless ’em, really wants is for Congress to go back
and find a fairy bill that covers a bunch of people, doesn’t cost
anything, offends no popular special interests, and generates broad
bipartisan support. While they’re at it, I want a pony. And a sous
vide machine.
So will Congress keep searching for this miracle
piece of legislation? That depends, I think, on how strong this
preference is to have them “keep on truckin’ ” on a health care bill.
As I’ve observed a zillion times, almost everything polls well in
isolation. Of course the public wants Congress to try to clean up the
uglier bits of our health care system. But does the public want
Congress to use its finite energy on creating a new health care bill more
than it wants that same legislative effort expended on jobs, banking
regulation, or the economy? All the other polls I’ve read say “no”.
Update: Yup, they may want Congress to move forward, but not on the plans currently on the table.
