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Sep 28 2009, 6:30 am by Chris Good

Question Of The Day: But People Want A Public Option...

The public option likely won't make it out of the Senate Finance Committee when it's put to a vote this week (though it could come back on the floor). Meanwhile, major polls show that most Americans want one. Is this a case of the legislature not giving the people what they want? If so, is there anything wrong with it?

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Comments (9)

Coast of Utopia


Major polls "show" no such thing.

As Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com observed in a terrifically informative post (Aug 27, 2009), there is a high level of ignorance about the meaning of public option-- even among pollsters---and small changes in the wording of questions lead to dramatic shifts in the levels of public support:


http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/08/poll-most-dont-know-what-public-option.html


ottovbvs (Replying to: Coast of Utopia)

.......Actually they do consistently show substantial majority support for a public option......they may be muddled about the precise definition of a public option but that's something totally different...... even if they are not quite sure what it is, they clearly want it........It may have been terrifically informative to you but the revelation that changing the wording of questions affects the outcome of answers is polling 101.....which is why most of these narrow issue polls are fairly worthless......I doubt we'll see a public option out of Baucus's committee but it's almost certain it will be in the final bill that will be cherry picked from the five house and senate bills.......then it will pass on reconciliation to much spurious whining from Republicans......that's the way it was always going to be.......and since the public by a large majority think most of the reaching out has been done by Obama and the Republicans are playing politics there will be no political price to pay.......and guess what......when it's passed it's going to be very popular......or was Bill Kristol wrong all along.

Coast of Utopia (Replying to: ottovbvs)

ottovbvs: I think we assign different meanings to "clearly want."

To me, the statement: "the public does not understand much about what X entails, but I am confident the public clearly wants X because a majority of individuals polled responded positively to a highly incomplete, one sentence question that purported to describe X (which cannot be adequately described in one sentence)" is nonsensical.

ottovbvs (Replying to: Coast of Utopia)

.....It has nothing to do with my confidence so don't misquote me......a mass of polls show clear majorities for the public option...even if people don't clearly understand all the small print....it may by nonsensical to you but it's a simple fact that thats what the polls show......hence your original comment was simply wrong......blustering and confusing different issues can't obscure that simple fact!!

Pineview1997

It's the Senate, not the legislature as a whole, that's not giving the people what they want. And what is unique about the Senate? One, it magnifies the votes of tiny agrarian states at the expense of places where people actually live, and two, the filibuster rules (by which everything now seems to operate now, sigh) also magnifies the power of a minority. It just so happens that at this moment these two anti-small-d-democratic features are currently aligned so that they benefit the party of no.

But then being democratic was never the goal of the framers of the Constitution. Rather they wanted a republic that would preserve the rights of white propertied males, also slaveholders.

And is this a problem? Yes, of course it is. When large corporate interests can pressure and influence our representatives against the collective interest - that's a systemic problem.

TycheSD

I don't think the polls show any such thing.

Deborah

People support the public option in the abstract but are unsure about whether any specific legislation actually does what they want. Thus with all health care reform, and with any widely-wished change in general--getting people to sign onto a specific and concrete plan is much harder.

That said, yes people want a public option, and if Dems were smart they'd pass a solid bill that included one and made a visible difference for people. Even Bill O'Reilly can see where this would help non-millionaires, for heaven's sake.

TycheSD

People want a lot of things. I want a new car, a new house, new furniture, etc., etc. But, can I afford those things? Pollsters should include deficit-related questions when they ask people if they favor the "public option."

I still think the best plan out there is the Wyden-Bennett Healthy Americans Act, which is deficit neutral, as scored by the CBO. Most people are just refusing to talk about it.

Former Clintonites, Lanny Davis and Matt Miller both favor the Wyden bill.

http://www.miamiherald.com/1280/story/1222961.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lanny-davis/the-wyden---bennett-healt_b_293117.html


Jeff

The majority that understands what the public option is and don't view it as "free ice cream" do not want it - period.