Friday, March 19, 2010
Health Care Reform - Can't Live With It - Or Without It
Pew Research
As the day of reckoning for health care reform approaches, Americans have little to cheer about. Nearly everyone (92%) gives the national economy a negative rating.
Closer to home, 85% say that jobs are hard to find in their community. A majority (54%) now says that someone in their household has been without a job or looking for work in the past year, compared with 39% in February 2009.
And the proportion saying they got a pay raise or a better job in the past year fell from 41% in January 2008 to 24% currently.
Public gloom about the economy and personal finances extends to opinions about the future of health care costs.
Regardless of what happens with the health care bills this week, Americans expect their own health care costs to rise in the coming years.
While 51% say their health care costs would increase if the proposed legislation becomes law, even more (63%) believe their health care costs will increase if no changes are made to the health care system.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 10-14 among 1,500 adults, finds that public views of the health care bills before Congress remain more negative than positive -- 48% generally oppose the bills before Congress while 38% favor them. But just 18% of Americans would prefer Congress pass nothing and leave the current system as it is.
It is in this context that attitudes toward Washington are best understood.
When asked for a single word that best describes their impression of Congress, "dysfunctional," "corrupt," "self-serving" and "inept" are volunteered most frequently.
Of people offering a one-word description, 86% have something negative to say, while only 4% say something positive.
Just 12% believe that Republicans and Democrats are working together in dealing with important issues facing the country -- 81% don't think so.
While more blame Republican leaders than Democratic leaders for this (by 25% to 18%), fully 27% volunteer that both are to blame.
And when asked which party has higher moral and ethical standards, neither party has an advantage -- 31% name the Democratic Party, 29% name the GOP, while 22% volunteer neither.
The sour public mood and disillusionment with Washington is apparent in Barack Obama's job approval ratings as well.
For the first time in Pew Research Center survey, nearly as many say they disapprove (43%) of Obama's job performance as approve (46%).
Even so, Obama's approval rating is well above the 31% who say they approve of the job the Democratic congressional leaders are doing and the 25% who give positive job ratings to GOP leaders.
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