Dem Leaders To Rank And File: Public Was Closely Divided On Medicare, Too!
Dem leaders have a message for nervous rank and file Dems: The public was also closely divided on whether to pass Medicare in the 1960s. And now look at how much the public loves it!
In an effort to stiffen Dem spines, senior Dem leadership aides are circulating among House Dems some polling numbers from the 1960s that underscore how controversial Medicare was in the months leading up to its historic passage.
Dem leadership staff is highlighting a series of numbers from 1962 on President John F. Kennedy’s proposal. In July of that year, a Gallup poll found 28% in favor, 24% viewing it unfavorably, and a sizable 33% with no opinion on it — showing an evenly divided public.
A month later, after JFK’s proposal went down, an Opinion Research Corporation poll found 44 percent said it should have been passed, while 37% supported its defeat — also showing an evenly divided public.
Also in that poll, a majority, 54%, said it was a serious problem that “government medical insurance for the aged would be a big step toward socialized medicine.”
After Lyndon Johnson was elected, a Harris poll found only a minority, 46%, supported a Federal plan to extend health care to the aged. Today, of course, Medicare is overwhelmingly popular.
To be clear, it’s not clear how reassured nervous House Dems will be by these numbers. A half century has passed since the passage of Medicare, while Democrats in Congress will face the voters in around nine months.
But perhaps some of them will take this blast from the past as a reminder that passing dramatic, history-making reform in the face of intense organized opposition has never been politically easy.
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I do not see the Ad. I use Firefox with Adblock Plus extension. No problems getting Plumline to load from my Bookmark, without encountering the ad.
Be careful; if the ad is from Liz Ard Cheney, it might shoot you in the face or try to waterboard you.
Lets us all follow NEWS REF into the wilderness, and let millions of uninsured die, in order to stick to his Purity Dogma.
@NR:When did “beyond left” morph into 1994 Republican Corporatism?
When the modest improvements in HCR is the best we can get right now, you purity troll.
NEWS REF is like the guy who starts driving against the oncoming traffic, and start yelling over and over; “you are all going the wrong way, and I am the only one going in the right direction”.
“After all your opposition these past few months, if you really care about health care, you will not oppose this bill and give a victory to republicans who will use it to sweep back into congress and the white house by 2012 and erode any chance of serious health reform. This is it.
It’s no longer about good policy, it’s about a desperate attempt to keep POWER, even if that means selling out to the predatory Corporate insurance industry.”
NR, did you even read what you just copied and pasted from me? I think my point was obvious to anyone, that IF YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT HEALTH REFORM you will not work to give power back to republicans so they can make it worse.
Stop hiding behind your garbage corporate sales rhetoric. It’s all or nothing with you, you’re a single issue voter just like anti-choice nuts.
The “modest improvements” are all that the Corporate insurance predators have allowed.
Frankly it should never have been up to them.
Had Obama had the “courage” to do the correct thing from the beginning, and negotiated from a strong left position, there would have been far more significant gains made.
Instead, the Corporate-friendly bill that forces Americans to pay those Corporations ransoms every month (likely for the rest of their lives) is apparently exactly what Obama/Emanuel and the Blue Dogs wanted.
That is NOT the ‘change’ I voted for, it’s just more right wing Corporatist nonsense.
The Corporate insurers who are set to gain billions in profit because of this bill must be pretty amused at how well they’ve played this game.
Here in the end-game they’ve even got Dem supporters selling their predatory Craporate insurance.
Even Machiavelli would be impressed.
“It’s all or nothing with you”
Do you seriously not understand how the whole “pass / no pass” of a bill works? It’s either “all or nothing”.
Take out the mandate to buy Craporate insurance, take out the REGRESSIVE taxes, and eliminate the restrictions on women’s freedoms and I’ll take another look at the bill.
But hasn’t Obama stuffed the bill with even more regressive right wing nonsense to appeal to the unappealable Republicans?
Keep in mind, I understand the game you are playing, “SD Jeff”, each of the HUGE compromises “the left” has made wasn’t enough and so another series of compromises was demanded of “the left”.
“The left” got their lunches eaten and then were told they had to make lunches for “the right”.
Which part of forcing poor and average Americans to pay off Fat Cat extortionists do you not understand is GROSSLY REGRESSIVE?
News Reference, purity troll gone wild.
Maybe you folks that think public opinon doesn’t matter should look into moving to somewhere like Cuba.
Representatives are elected to represent……PERIOD.
related subject: I curse the GOP to hell forever for 2 crimes against humanity:
1) The Clinton BJ Witch Hunt – thanks for dragging the country through the mud for 2 years over a ********** BJ. While they were plotting 9/11, the country was practically frozen over a potential impeachment.
2) W. – no explanation needed.
I’m a registered independent that will vote against the GOP in every election at every level for the rest of my life (I’m 40). You’ve earned it…..
Medicare, Largest Health care insurance Company in America,
Medicare, Denies more claims then any other Insurance.
Medicare.
Medicare, Even Our leaders say fraud is so prevalent we have ANOTHER tax payer paid agency to try to stop the leaks.
Medicare, One of the major tools to increase the control of Government – We let it happen and think it is good. It is no wonder they will get to take more control of our lives. We do not manage our leaders!
Medicare, The Embryo of what is about to come with the Health Care Bill.
We need health Care Reform, We do not need Government in business. Name one business they run well. Current Government laws are the main cause of the increased cost of health care. (Easy to research)
I believe Lazy people want Government run health care, the same laziness that keeps these people from investigating the truth of how we got to this point in the first place.
More government control equates to more “Out Of Control.”
ALL political parties are lying to us because they know they can.
I think the primise of this blog post in incorrect. I live around people that use medicare and they hate it. Most doctors hate it because it doesn’t reimburse even their cost. Often they won’t even take patience who use it. The system itself is so poorly run that they loose not just a few billion but hundreds of billions of dollars each year. It looses money so much that it is staged to be inslovent in just a few years. It is a terrible government program that puts my grandchildren further in debt, force them to pay into it with out the chance of every being able to use it. It has allowed congress to funnel IOU’s (government bonds) that allows congress to skew the amounts that they show each year in annual budget deficits. If we are to compare government run Medicare to the new health care bill, I would be very concerned about the government taking over 17% of the nations economy and trying to run it when it can’t even run Medicare, or for that matter any government program, without running it in the red. Anyone who thinks the government is there to help you by conficating it from others needs to read Mein Kampf (national socialism) of the works of Karl Marx (communism). You may not think you are a socialist or a communist but that is what you are advocating or endorsing with this national health care plan. If it’s such a good thing then why do so many people for other coutries who have such a health care program come to the US, often at great sacrifice to themself and family, to get medical care because if they wait until they got it there they would die before they could get the proper treatment.
My top 5 reasons the current healthcare bill must NOT be passed:
1) Government-paid healthcare (or health insurance) is NOT a right. It is a TRAP, and an excuse to collect and control more tax dollars. Healthcare, like food, is a product/service that we need throughout our lives; we may choose to purchase basics or more costly options, but the market choices and the accompanying cost burdens are rightly our own.
2) The free market benefits everyone. Monopolies (especially government monopolies) harm everyone. (One of the problems at the moment is the market is not free enough – insurers are not permitted to compete across state lines)
3) Contrary to what some are saying, insurance choices (the free market) will disappear under the proposed legislation. Private companies cannot compete with subsidized entities. Government insurance will drive all others out of business by collecting more taxes from you and then offering lower prices than the private insurers can sustain – until private insurers are gone – then just watch what will happen to the quality and tax burden.
4) Now, you can seek damages for malpractice. If government takes the helm, such recourse will eventually but inevitably disappear.
5) Much better alternatives exist that do not compromise the free market and do not involve government in the healthcare or insurance businesses, in other words, alternatives that avoid all the pitfalls of the legislation currently under consideration.