Poll: Strong Support For Saving Obamacare, Dodging TrumpCare

The Kaiser Family Foundation has a new poll out that Republicans in Congress would do well to heed:

-- The August Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that the majority of the public (60 percent) say it is a “good thing” that the Senate did not pass the bill that would have repealed and replaced the ACA. Since then, President Trump has suggested Congress not take on other issues, like tax reform, until it passes a replacement plan for the ACA, but six in ten Americans (62 percent) disagree with this approach, while one-third (34 percent) agree with it. 

--A majority of the public (57 percent) want to see Republicans in Congress work with Democrats to make improvements to the 2010 health care law, while smaller shares say they want to see Republicans in Congress continue working on their own plan to repeal and replace the ACA (21 percent) or move on from health care to work on other priorities (21 percent). However, about half of Republicans and Trump supporters would like to see Republicans in Congress keep working on a plan to repeal the ACA. 

--A large share of Americans (78 percent) think President Trump and his administration should do what they can to make the current health care law work while few (17 percent) say they should do what they can to make the law fail so they can replace it later. About half of Republicans and supporters of President Trump say the Trump administration should do what they can to make the law work (52 percent and 51 percent, respectively) while about four in ten say they should do what they can to make the law fail (40 percent and 39 percent, respectively). Moving forward, a majority of the public (60 percent) says President Trump and Republicans in Congress are responsible for any problems with the ACA.  (our emphasis)

Deranged narcissist Donald "Rump" Trump will find it difficult, if not impossible, to give up his Ahab- like obsession with harpooning the signature legislation of President Obama. Certainly his core of mouth- breathing knuckle- draggers will go over the cliff with him on this or most other issues. Even so, there have been signs that core voters are becoming fewer and less strong in their support. Likewise, with Rump's deranged fixations and his sagging poll numbers, there's reporting indicating that Republican officeholders are less concerned about ignoring him, especially since Rump has shown zero loyalty to Republicans in Congress =cough= Missy McConnell =cough= Dean Heller =cough= Lisa Murkowski =cough. The belief is, fellow deranged mouth- breathers in the House Freedom Caucus aside, Republicans are going to want to proceed on their own shitty agenda, on their timeline, regardless of what Rump has to say. This poll gives more evidence that following Rump's self- interested demands on Obamacare would further seriously impede that agenda.

What's Going Right With Obamacare In Florida and Nationally

While the reactionaries continue to try to block uninsured Americans from getting affordable health insurance (see post below), their obstruction hasn't worked in at least one important State:

(AP) Florida's Republican leaders have fought the Affordable Care Act at every turn, banning navigators from county health departments, offering no state dollars to boost outreach efforts to 3.5 million uninsured and leading the fight to repeal the law. Yet the state has emerged as a tale of what went right with President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. 

More than 440,000 Florida residents had been enrolled through the federal marketplace through the end of February, putting Florida on pace to exceed the federal government's initial projections by the time enrollment closes March 31.

Meanwhile, the results of a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll might be a sign that Obamacare as a potent campaign issue for Republicans might turn out to be a bust:

Among the public overall, general opinion of the ACA moved in a more positive direction this month for the first time since November’s post-rollout negative shift in opinion. While unfavorable views of the law continue to outpace favorable ones, the gap between negative and positive views now stands at eight percentage points, down from 16 percentage points in January. Four years after the ACA’s passage, a little over half the public says they are tired of hearing the national debate over the law and want the country to focus more on other things, while four in ten say it’s important for the debate to continue. At the same time, six in ten want Congress to keep the law in place and either leave it as is or work to improve it, while three in ten would prefer to see it either repealed and replaced with a Republican alternative or repealed and not replaced. (our emphasis)

So, keep harping on it, reactionaries.  Keep sinking millions into those lying Koch brothers ads.  And, Democrats, you can declare success and agree that it's time to move on to issues like increasing the minimum wage, equal rights, immigration reform, and protecting a woman's right to reproductive choice.

64 Percent Want Obamacare To Stay

The latest Bloomberg National poll:

President Barack Obama’s health-care law is becoming more entrenched, with 64 percent of Americans now supporting it outright or backing small changes. [snip] 

Fifty-one percent of Americans favor retaining the Affordable Care Act with “small modifications,” while 13 percent would leave the law intact and 34 percent would repeal it. That’s the highest level of public acceptance for the law yet in the Bloomberg poll.

Sad times for sufferers of Obama Derangement Syndrome (not covered!).

More Polling Shows Republicans Tanking, Obamacare Support Up

From a new NBC News/ WSJ poll (our emphasis):

The Republican Party has been badly damaged in the ongoing government shutdown and debt limit standoff, with a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finding that a majority of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown, and with the party’s popularity declining to its lowest level.

By a 22-point margin (53 percent to 31 percent), the public blames the Republican Party more for the shutdown than President Barack Obama – a wider margin of blame for the GOP than the party received during the poll during the last shutdown in 1995-96.

Just 24 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion about the GOP, and only 21 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party, which are both at all-time lows in the history of poll.

And:

Yet what is perhaps even more worrisome for the GOP is the “boomerang” effect: As the party has used the shutdown and fiscal fight to campaign against the nation’s health-care law and for limited government, the poll shows those efforts have backfired.

 For one thing, the health-care law has become more popular since the shutdown began. Thirty-eight percent see the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”) as a good idea, versus 43 percent who see it as a bad idea – up from 31 percent good idea, 44 percent bad idea last month.

Can we get a "bwahahahaha!"?