My Tuesday column on the health-care bill has prompted mail from bill opponents, who make a variety of charges that have been lodged before.
One that I find fascinating is the linkage between polling and how Congress is supposed to vote. If I may summarize the argument, since polls showed a majority or plurality (depending on the poll) opposed, it was wrong for Congress to pass the health-care bill and the companion fix bill.
I had cause to check pollster.com’s summary of polling on the subject. As of yesterday, the rolling average showed 50.4 percent opposed to the health bill and 42.1 percent in favor. So, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that a majority of voters didn’t want this bill at the time it was passed.
One that I find fascinating is the linkage between polling and how Congress is supposed to vote. If I may summarize the argument, since polls showed a majority or plurality (depending on the poll) opposed, it was wrong for Congress to pass the health-care bill and the companion fix bill.
I had cause to check pollster.com’s summary of polling on the subject. As of yesterday, the rolling average showed 50.4 percent opposed to the health bill and 42.1 percent in favor. So, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that a majority of voters didn’t want this bill at the time it was passed.
I’ll grant this even though the health-care polling has shown that plenty of voters aren’t exactly sure what’s in the legislation and what’s not. The polls say no and Congress must follow suit, right?
Well, via Jonathan Chait over at The New Republic, I came across some unrelated polling -- on the deficit. Chait reports, “Quinnipiac has a new poll out on the deficit. The results may not surprise. By more than a three-to-one margin, the public opposes ‘cutting the growth of spending’ on Medicare or Social Security benefits, or any tax increase on the middle class. What specific measure do they support? Raising taxes on the rich. 60% of the public says we should raises taxes on households earning more than $250,000 a year. 72% want to raise taxes on households earning more than $1 million.”
Chait continues: “Interestingly, 42% of Republicans favor a tax hike on $250,000 households, and 56% of them favor a tax hike on households earning over a million. But zero percent of Republican elected officials in Washington favor this approach. Indeed, the Republican Party’s current plans all involve large tax cuts for high-income households.”
So, exactly when is Congress supposed to follow the polling on an issue and when are lawmakers to ignore the clearly expressed wishes of the majority?
And wasn’t there a great deal of chatter recently about how suspect public-opinion polling is, anyway?
Just asking.
