One of the right-wing talking points against passing a health care bill is that the polls show that Americans don't want it.
Sean Hannity thinks so.
You -- regardless of what the -- the American people have heard this for a year. The American people have rejected it. [...] You're ignoring by almost 3-1 the voices of the American people. We've got the Gallup Poll, the Rasmussen poll -- His lowest approval rating since he's been president...And yet he's still going to find some parliamentary trick and maneuver to giver it to the American people. It's like giving the American people the middle finger.
On Fox News yesterday, Neil Cavuto argued that Democrats want to get health care reform done before the Easter break because “they sure as heck don’t want to see those town hallers.” Cavuto, who was interviewing Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), then claimed that Democrats “agree the polls are increasingly looking worse for health care support.” Watch it:
However, there is a huge discrepancy among the polls.
Joel Benenson, the White House’s pollster of choice, argues in a new polling memo that “support for President Barack Obama’s health care plan has been building in the wake of his State of the Union speech in late January.”It isn’t just Obama’s pollster who has identified this shift. As Matt Yglesias pointed out yesterday, Pollster.com’s average of polls shows public opinion trending more favorably towards passing health care reform.
After examining the data, polling expert Mark Blumenthal concluded that “any way you slice it, there does appear to be a real tightening of opinion on health reform although as always, these results are snapshots and subject to change.”
Even though the GOP is predicting that if health care passes there will be doom and gloom, there is now evidence that many people want health care to pass.
Even a pro-life group is now urging Congress to pass the health care legislation.
Twenty-five pro-life Catholic theologians and Evangelical leaders yesterday sent letters to members of Congress urging them not to let misleading information about abortion provisions in the Senate health care bill block passage of sorely-needed reform.
Recently, the Catholic Health Association weighed in on the topic.
The Catholic Health Association, "the national leadership organization of more than 2,000 Catholic health care sponsors, systems, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and related organizations," has also sent Congress a letter urging lawmakers to pass the Senate health bill. The group writes that while the legislation isn't perfect, it is "'a major first step' toward covering all Americans and would make 'great improvements' for millions of people."
Are the Republicans listening?
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