Public Opinion Snapshot: Public Resisting Conservative Slanders on Health Care Reform

November 17, 2009

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Contact: Madeline Meth
Phone: 202.741.6277
Email: mmeth@americanprogress.org

November 16, 2009

Read full article, and view public opinion charts, here.

Conservatives are putting up a last ditch effort to stop health care reform. They’re doing their level best to scare the public, telling them that passing health care reform will take the country down the road to socialism and ruin the economy, among other things. But the public, while it still has many questions and concerns about health care reform, just isn’t buying these scare tactics. Consider these findings from the most recent Kaiser Health Tracking Poll.

The public was asked whether the president and Congress passing health care reform would make “the country as a whole” worse off or better off. By 53-28, the public thought the country would be better off, rather than worse off.

So much for taking the country down the road to socialism. What about ruining the economy? Over the long term, the public believes, by 49-37, that passing health care reform will actually help the nation’s economy.

And that public option, which conservatives say is the worst of the worst? That still draws 57-39 support from the public, despite the endless talk about how this would mean “a government takeover of the health care system.”

Conservatives will no doubt keep up their barrage of slander and misinformation in the coming weeks. The public is resisting much of it, as these data suggest. Let’s hope their elected representatives do the same and complete the historic task before them of finally passing health care reform.

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 Culture page and the Progressive Studies program page of our website.

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