The media and politicos have been dwelling obsessively on polling around the health reform legislation. For now, though, the data is fairly inconclusive. The popularity of reform rose in the days after it passed; it’s dipped a little in the last few days. Pres. Bill Clinton was mocked for running his administration according to the swinging ups and downs of polling data. Now the Tea Party has made a new argument for “government by poll” by suggesting that leading in any other way smacks of dictatorship and “not listening to the American people.”
Latest numbers after the jump.
Gallup’s Monday poll suggests voters are once again split on health reform, finding 47 percent of voters believe the new legislation is “a good thing” while 50 percent believe it’s a “bad thing.” That’s within the sampling error (+- 4 percent) but it’s a change from numbers that showed people slightly more positive than negative toward the bill the night it was passed.
The Gallup/USA today poll conducted March 26 to 28 suggested Democrats overwhelmingly supported the bill while Republican voters mostly opposed it. Almost exactly half, 54 percent, of unaffiliated voters thought the bill was “a bad thing.”
According to Gallup, 57 percent of Americans without health insurance like the bill. Old people are split: 45 percent liked it but a solid 52 percent of Americans 65 and older don’t like the bill.
The largest difference was between between income brackets where 60 percent of those who make less than $20,000 were pleased by health care reform but only 39 percent of those who make $50,000 to $75,000 like it.
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