Memo From White House Pollster To Congress: Support For Health Care Reform Is Very High

[mikekohr]

President's Pollster Sends Congressional Dems a Memo
Anne Kornblut today reports that in advance of President Obama's health-care address Wednesday before a joint session of Congress, his lead pollster, Joel Benenson, sent a memo to Democrats on Capitol Hill saying that support for a health-care overhaul is higher than it appears and will increase once the specifics are made clear. The full memo follows:

TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Joel Benenson
RE: Public Opinion and the State of Health Insurance Reform
DATE: September 3, 2009

•By large margins, the American people support major reforms to the health care system.

--82% of Americans say that the U.S. health care system needs either fundamental changes (55%) or needs "to be rebuilt" (27%). (CBS, Aug. 31)

•A substantial majority of Americans believe that the problems in the country's health care system will eventually affect most Americans if they are not addressed.

--65% of Americans believe that the health care system's problems will eventually affect most Americans, while only 31% believe most Americans will continue to get good health care. (CNN, Aug. 31)

•The desire for change is driven, more than anything else, by a desire to see a crackdown on the worst practices of insurance companies:

--An overwhelming 92% say it is important to them personally that reform protects consumers in the health insurance market by requiring insurance companies to continue coverage at reasonable rates when they become ill. (Kaiser, Aug. 11)

--Two thirds (66%) say this is very important to them. (Kaiser, Aug. 11)

•There is little doubt that the moderate numbers of support for the President's health insurance reform plan are based in large part on a lack of awareness of the details of the plan.

--Only 31% say they "understand the health care reforms under consideration in Congress, while 67% say they find them confusing. (CBS, Aug. 31)

--Indeed, even Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies found that 37% have no opinion yet on the President's plan, while 25% support and 37% oppose. (POS, August 13)

full article:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/09/04/presidents_pollster_sends_cong.html?wprss=daily-dose&wpisrc=newsletter

mike kohr

[Captain Hilts]

1. YES!!!!

[mikekohr]

2. I Believe this bodes well for the upcoming fight over health care reform

I believe this signals that President Obama is going to come out swinging tommarrow night.

mike kohr

[JimWis]

3. Thanks for sharing this info. I have always said that a quiet

majority of this country want this reform. It is the loud minority that we always hear from. I hope the president gets tough on this and realizes that the majority of the country has his back.

[mikekohr]

4. The shrill Teabagger rallies and town hall tantrums have dropped support for Republicans

in Congress to 12%, Dick Cheney territory.

[BlueIdaho]

5. Is the "student speech" is just the beginning?

Are ordinary Americans about to learn what we already understand - that republicans will do anything and say anything to win? Will they finally understand the extremist shrieks about the President's school speech are but a trivial foreshadowing of larger lies? When they see the truth about health care reform, there is the very real possibility ordinary Americans will understand that the republican's have seriously overplayed their hand and are in fact the untrustworthy, unpatriotic, and corrupt party of corporate power. Just maybe then real Americas will know what we know - health care is broken and its broken because of corporate greed, not because of poor folk being treated for their illnesses.

Have the republicans managed to tea bag themselves?

[mikekohr]

6. I am predicting we will get substantiative Health Reform and will gain seats in 2010

Joe Wilson's seat in South Carolina for one.