A new survey conducted by Survey USA (whose data tends to be used by conservative news sources like NewsMax) concludes that support for a public option remains high even among Republicans. 58% of all those surveyed support having a public option.
58% of Republicans and 56% of those who identify themselves as Conservative felt a public health insurance plan was extremely important to be in the final bill. 70% of Liberals support the public option while Only 60% of Democrats and 54% of Independents strongly support the measure, suggesting that the greatest doubts of the public option are coming from the Center-Left.
Most remarkably is that the support numbers, much like the ones above, read pretty similarly across the board. Age, region and ideology change the numbers very little.
Overall, with 58% of the country in favor of the public option, is there any reason it should not pass? I mean, the Republicans have thrown everything they had at destroying the bills reputation, and while they have damaged Obama’s perceived ability to handle health care (which so far, by letting the Republicans score points is understandable), and support for the bill is down from the 70+% it was before the summer onslaught, the Righties have been unable to destroy support for the public option, even among members of their own party!
It’s time for Obama to abandon the Republicans and push ahead with plan b, namely, a Senatorial strategy called Reconciliation, which allows financial measures to go through with a simple majority, without the threat of a Filibuster. What few people know is that he had to wait till October anyway, which is rapidly approaching.
The Huffington Post did a piece on the details of the Democrats options and it is worth a read.
The more we understand the facts of Health Care, the more the grandiose and utterly false claims made by the Republicans become irrelevant.
