What Did Obama’s Media Blitz Buy Him?
Posted on 28. Sep, 2009 by James Devere in American Politics, Political News
According to a Rasmussen Report out Monday, “Just 41% of voters nationwide now favor the health care reform proposed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats. That’s down two points from a week ago and the lowest level of support yet measured.” Yet the unpopularity of the measure has not slowed or even given pause to those who are pushing the Bill. Insurance News Net reports, “Speaking before the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual dinner on Saturday night, Obama prescribed the same contentious policy pill he’s embraced since taking office: health care reform and his intention to ‘get it done this year.’ ‘We must bring about a better health care system in this country not in ten years, not in five years, not in one year, this year,’” he said.
After the unprecedented moves of addressing a joint session of Congress and the American people directly, and holding a media blitz that included five Sunday morning talk shows and an appearance on David Letterman, support among the general public for the current initiative is still waning. So, what is driving the numbers and why were the attempts to explain the plan unsuccessful?
It comes down to believability. The Administration has repeatedly stated this: quality will get better and costs will come down. It is on these two points where the public is the most steadfast in their distaste for the reform. From the Rassmusen Report, “If the plan passes, 24% of voters say the quality of care will get better, and 55% say it will get worse… Fifty-four percent (54%) say passage of the plan will make the cost of health care go up while 23% say it will make costs go down.”
It does not matter how many times the president says it or how many different ways in which he says it, the American people can do the math and know that the current health care plan will result in more cost and less care. For all of the airtime given to pushing the bill it also still remains that our leaders have failed to fully explain the contents or the intensions of the current legislative vehicle; also from the Rassmusen Report “just 22% believe Congress has a good understanding of the legislation.”
With such dismal support numbers in the face of an all-out media blitz, it is time for Congress to go back into committee and start over. The President has continued to get one point right and that is that there is a consensus in America for health care reform. It is hard to reconcile the Administration’s insistence on passing the current bill, with there public statements about their willingness to consider all options. In 5 months of debate, the measure we started with has not changed appreciatively.
Today’s Rassmusen poll shows that despite the rhetoric, our current version of healthcare is less about getting it right for the American people, and more about pushing a new ideology against our will.
