Poll Finds Voters Against Obamacare, as Trust in Democrats Drops

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

The summer congressional recess brings with it a bit of good news for the GOP. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that, "for the first time in over two years of polling, voters trust Republicans slightly more than Democrats on the handling of the issue of healthcare," 44 percent to 41 percent.

For a party that was considered in many quarters to be irrelevant after the November 2008 election, and given the full court press in which the White House and its allies are currently engaged, the shift is nothing less than amazing.

According to Rasmussen, "Democrats held a four-point lead on the issue last month and a 10-point lead in June. For most of the past two years, more than 50 percent of voters said they trusted Democrats on healthcare. The latest results mark the lowest level of support measured for the party on the now-contentious issue."

Voters also don't like the specifics of the healthcare reform plan Congress is currently working on, also with the backing of the White House. Support for it has fallen "to a new low," with just 42 percent of U.S. voters now in favor of it. That represents a five-point decline in support just in the two weeks since the recess began.

Consider it not just a victory for the folks raising a ruckus at congressional town hall meetings but proof that the complaints being heard do not merely represent "astroturf lobbying" directed by conservative groups from Washington. If it were, it is reasonable to assume the numbers would not have dropped so far, so fast because all the sound and fury being expressed by constituents at their members of Congress would not be reflective of the national mood.

The shift in the numbers Rasmussen documents indicates quite clearly that the more the voters learn about Obamacare, the less they like it.

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