Friday, November 13, 2009

Americans aren't buyin' it - Megan McArdle reveals that "the more we talk about health care reform, the less popular it gets."

1 comment:

Eleanor Zogby said...

Too bad Megan McArdle didn't have the room to post the second graph.

Here's the page she pulled it from. It's the next graph down:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/124253/Say-Health-Coverage-Not-Gov-Responsibility.aspx

Actually, it's not Americans who "aren't buyin' it." It's a particular subset of Americans. Wanna take a wild guess who the particular subset is?

Hint: 73% of Democrats felt government had a responsibility in 2000, 74% said so in 2004, and 74% say so today. That represents the low figure. According to the last decade of poll results shown, Democratic support has never been under 73% on this question.

Hint #2: The previous support from the mystery subset of Americans was very nearly a straight line for nine years, from 1999-2007. But their response, so reliable for so long, has fallen off the table: 43%-44-45-41-43-42-39-41-38-29-21%
This group's breathtaking change of heart accounts for the entirety of the overall drop.

Okay, guessing time is over. Go take a look at the second graph, but watch out. The surprise answer is so unexpected, you just might not be able to bring yourself to buy it!