Democrats Out Of Sync With Majority Working Family Opinion On Health Care Reform

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/12897

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on February 8, 2010 - 4:53pm
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By Doug Cunningham

With major challenges to a working class legislative agenda both organized labor and the Democratic Party are trying to figure out a path forward. In several recent major national polls there’s a disconnect between what the majority of Americans say they support and what the Democratic Party majority in Congress and the White House are doing. Noam Chomsky, in an article for In These Times, noted that this gap between public policy and majority public opinion looms large not only for Democrats at the ballot box in November, but for our very democracy. Most polls now show that a solid majority of Americans oppose the healthcare reform plans in their current forms. But – polls continue to show a majority of Americans support a public option to compete with private insurance companies. A January CNN/Opinion Research poll shows 54 percent support the public option. Labor also favors a public option, yet Democrats in control of the Senate stripped it out of the reform bill. Chomsky says polls show 85 percent of Americans believe the government should have the right to negotiate drug prices, but the Obama administration has cut that out of the current reform package, too. Chomsky argues that the public opposition to the overall current reform plans is because those plans don’t go far enough to deliver what the majority of Americans really want.

[liberal N proud]

1. OK - So if the Democrats are out of sync, what are the republicans?

The only talk the GOP is interested in related to Health Insurance Reform would be Tort Reform and that isn't going to solve anyones problems but the corporations.

So the Democrats are out of sync, so jump out of the frying pan and into the fire where the GOP can really burn us. As bad as they are there isn't any other solution at this time. We can continue to pressure the Democrats but we lose the House and Senate in November and gridlock will be broken, but not in a good way.

We can't say it would teach them a lesson because the only ones who will pay is US.