Poll: Big Majorities Dismiss Leading Right Wing Health Care Attacks As "Scare Tactics"
Wow, this is cause for cautious optimism: Buried in a new Bloomberg poll <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a1aj4z4GhbH8> is evidence that solid majorities dismiss all the leading right wing health care talking points as "scare tactics." Not kidding! It's true. The poll tested a range of attacks and asked whether they were "legitimate" or a "disortion" and a "scare tactic." The results: * Sixty-three percent said the claim that "death panels of government officials would decide how much medical care ailing individuals will receive" is a scare tactic, versus 30% who said it's legit. * Fifty-nine percent said the claim that "health care would be rationed" is a scare tactic, versus 35% who said it's legit. * Fifty-two percent said the claim that "health care would become socialized medicine" is a scare tactic, versus 43% who said it's legit. * Sixty-one percent said the claim that "government money would be used to pay for abortions" is a scare tactic, versus 33% who said it's legit. * Fifty-eight percent said the claim that "government money would pay for health care for illegal immigrants" is a scare tactic, versus 37% who said it's legit. How to square these numbers with other polls showing a far more credulous public? My bet is that by explicitly offering people the choice of seeing an assertion as a "scare tactic," it encourages far more skepticism than polls that merely ask whether people agree with the claims. Of course, it's worth noting that in response to the attacks, the Senate finance committe bill dropped the public option, nixed end of life counseling and tightened up restrictions on illegal immigrants. In other words, even if the right type of cajoling can get folks to dismiss the nonsense as bogus, it won't stop the assertions from shaping the legislation. http://snipurl.com/rxtr3 <http://snipurl.com/rxtr3> [theplumline_whorunsgov_com]
