Public Opinion Snapshot: Tides Turn on Sacred Conservative Causes

Americans Say No to Bush Tax Cuts, Yes to Health Care Reform

By Ruy Teixeira | August 2, 2010

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What could be more central to conservatives’ belief systems than the greatness of the Bush tax cuts and the terribleness of the new health care reform law? How inconvenient for them that the public is showing no signs of embracing these sacred causes.

Take the Bush tax cuts. Just 30 percent of respondents in a recent Pew poll favored keeping all the Bush tax cuts in place, while 27 percent said the tax cuts for the wealthy should be repealed and the rest of the cuts should stay in place, and another 31 percent said all the Bush tax cuts should be repealed.

On the health care reform law, the most recent Kaiser Health tracking poll now has 50 percent voicing a favorable reaction to the new law, versus just 35 percent unfavorable. This reverses a 44-41 unfavorable verdict from two months ago.

Conservatives might want to consider finding some other sacred causes—at least if they care about how much public support they get for them.

Ruy Teixeira is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. To learn more about his public opinion analysis go to the Media and Progressive Values page and the Progressive Studies program page of our website.