It’s not hard. The world gets it done, while Americans fall for propaganda that props up a barbaric status quo, in which a few get wealthy while millions go without life-preserving care.

But we said the opposition was overblown, and driven by people who can’t get over the fact that their party failed utterly and was ousted for those failings in 2006 and 2008. Today the AP released a poll showing that since Obama has stepped in to take back the mic on the issue, support is rising again;

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AP Poll: Health care overhaul hanging in there

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and TREVOR TOMPSON (AP)
October 7, 2009‎

WASHINGTON — The fever has broken. The patient is out of intensive care. But if you’re President Barack Obama, you can’t stop pacing the waiting room. Health care overhaul is still in guarded condition.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll has found that opposition to Obama’s health care remake dropped dramatically in just a matter of weeks. Still, Americans remain divided over complex legislation that Democrats are advancing in Congress.

The public is split 40-40 on supporting or opposing the health care legislation, the poll found. An even split is welcome news for Democrats, a sharp improvement from September, when 49 percent of Americans said they opposed the congressional proposals and just 34 percent supported them.

Anger about health care boiled over during August. Lawmakers returning home for town hall meetings faced outcries that the government was trying to take over the system, ushering in higher costs, lower quality — even rationing and euthanasia.

“It’s very significant that there’s an upturn in support for the plans because after August there was a sense that the whole effort was beginning to decline and would not come back in terms of public support,” said Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor who tracks public opinion on health care.

“Even with this,” added Blendon, “the country is still divided over whether or not moving ahead is the right thing to do.” A large number of Americans – 17 percent – say they neither support nor oppose the health legislation, suggesting many have unanswered questions.

Still, a shift has taken place. Behind it seems to be a growing determination among Democrats to move forward. Meanwhile, political independents don’t appear as alarmed about the congressional proposals as they were just a few weeks ago. Still, opponents remain more passionate in their convictions than do supporters.

In a significant change, opposition among older Americans dropped 16 percentage points. Seniors have been concerned that Congress would stick them with the bill by cutting Medicare to pay for covering the uninsured. Among the most reliable voters, they were much more wary of the changes than the public as a whole. The gap has narrowed.

The poll found that 68 percent of Democrats support the congressional plans, up from 57 percent in early September. Opposition among independents plunged from 51 percent to 36 percent. However, only 29 percent of independents currently support the plans in Congress.

Among seniors, opposition fell from 59 percent in September to 43 percent now. Almost four in 10, 38 percent, now support it, compared with 31 percent in September.

Retiree Sandi Murray, 65, of Hesperia, Mich., said she doesn’t have any concerns her Medicare coverage will suffer. “I think it will be A-OK,” she said.

Murray said she thinks it’s time to address the problems of nearly 50 million people without coverage. “We need to do something so that everybody has some amount of coverage for some reasonable amount of money,” she said.

Republicans remain solidly against the congressional health care plans, with four out of five opposed. However, even 13 percent say they support the bills in Congress, a contrast with the mood of GOP lawmakers, who are all but unanimously opposed.

Americans overwhelmingly say it’s important that health care legislation have the support of both parties, but Democrats are showing signs of impatience. Fifty-seven percent say Obama and the Democrats should pass a bill this year even if they are unable to win support from Republicans.

Blendon credits Obama’s speech to Congress in early September and his blitz of media interviews and appearances since then for moving public opinion toward the positive column. What some have criticized as presidential hyperactivity, many Americans took as a sign that the president was taking ownership of the issue, Blendon said.

The AP-GfK poll was conducted Oct. 1-5, based on a nationally representative sample of 1,003 adults age 18 or older, contacted by telephone on land lines and cell phones. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for results based on the entire sample.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Don’t repost on Balkingpoints…

Many think Hitler was a socialist, which indeed shows their ignorance of history. They will swallow any line of propaganda which Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, feed them.

They think “cut government/cut taxes” is the answer to America’s deep social problems, deprivations and inequities – even though that approach just failed under Bush II, and failed before that under Reagan/Bush 1 – which is what allowed Bill Clinton to defeat Bush 1 in 1992. Hoodwinked
and conditioned by Wingnut Media, they are unable to wake up.

But there is clearly waste and excess in government that we need to turn towards dire needs like health insurance, energy independence and the crumbling U.S. infrastructure. I suspect the $500 billion budget for the Pentagon every year, is full of excess payouts. And while I supported the concept of a stimulus package, it was thrown together haphazardly and no doubt had lots of pork in it.

You know how states have ballot referendums? Those should probably start up now on this very issue, to force an equalization of pay and benefit scales between public and private sector workers. That could reduce the expenses that site refers to, but also possibly lock in benefits for part-time and minimum-wage workers in service industries, which at present offer almost none.

And if those workers start doing better, that would be the best stimulus plan of all…

http://www.thefreeenterprisenation.org/ohmy.aspx.

I knew it was bad, but not this bad.

(somebody needs to tell Barack to get off his computer and get to work… ;^)

I know someone who might need some of those links. And Congress just passed another 13 weeks of unemployment benefits – and with this downturn we could possibly be looking at years on end of that. The U.S. passes those as stop-gap measures but in Europe, unemployment assistance is more assured for workers.

I believe it’s time to tie public-sector job opportunities into those unemployment payments – both so that the idle are producing and active, and so that a social benefit is obtained. Look at the unmet needs in child and elderly care, as well as community policing. We could slash crime in America with an auxiliary police patrol on foot or bicycles, perhaps doubling the size of police forces that protect U.S. cities.

It can shrink & grow with booms and downturns – I see no philosophical nor values problem with a public-sector employment option. The unemployment check is an expense either way for governments, but you shut down some of the awful human and monetary costs of crime with such a program.