United Liberty

With ObamaCare dominating the news and blogs this week, you may think that it’s the biggest issue on the minds of Americans. You’d be wrong.

Gallup finds that jobs and economy are our top concerns:

The poll also finds that in the long-term, Americans are more worried about budget deficits and the economy than health care.

From Michael Medved’s most recent column comes a statistic that made me take a double-take:

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which has surveyed 1,000 adults almost every day for more than two years, shows that even in the midst of high unemployment and bitter political turmoil, people are pleased with their private progress. From 2008 through 2009, participants’ “life evaluations” of their current situation and future expectations rose by more than 5 percentage points. Without exception, every racial group, income level and age cohort showed brightening attitudes, with particularly big improvements among blacks, young adults (18-29) and people of modest means ($24,000 to $48,000 in annual income).

In other words, blacks, young people and the middle class are doing well. When’s the last time you heard that? Additionally came a striking poll regarding health care:

As the business community and more public polling shows opposition to ObamaCare, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tells us, “[W]e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

President Barack Obama made a promise to promote transparency by having negotiations broadcast on C-SPAN. Even though C-SPAN encouraged President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress to let people see the process, they failed to follow through. Even if they had made good on the promise, certain aspects of ObamaCare are going to be controverisal, such as the individual and employer mandates and breaking the pledge not to tax the middle class.

You don’t hide the process. That’s how you make sausage, not health care policy.

Over at SCOTUS Blog, Matt Sundquist notes that the polling, even surveys by mainstream news, in the wake of the Citizens United decision is skewed to present a negative view of the ruling:

Americans oppose the Court’s recent decision in Citizens United by a margin of nearly two to one (sixty-four to twenty-seven percent), according to a poll conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and McKinnon Media on behalf of Common Cause, Change Congress, and the Public Campaign Action Fund.  Another poll, by ABC News and the Washington Post, recently found that eighty percent of Americans oppose the Citizens ruling, with sixty-five percent “strongly” opposing it.  Both polls also found that a broad majority of voters favor some type of congressional response to the decision.  These findings have been widely reported, with some proponents of reform relying on them to call for a congressional response to the Citizens decision.

On the heels of last week’s Rasmussen survey, which took at look at general election prospects, SurveyUSA is out with a poll, sponsored by the Louisville Courier-Journal and WHAS-TV, in the primary between Rand Paul and his Republican primary opponents.

Kentucky GOP Senate Primary

• Rand Paul: 42%
• Trey Grayson: 27%
• Bill Johnson: 5%
• Gurley Martin: 3%
• John Stephenson: 2%
• Jon Scribner: 1%
• Undecided: 19%

The poll shows a generic Republican and a generic Democrat neck and neck at 43% to 42%, with both splitting independents right down the middle.

The latest polling from Gallup shows that Americans still oppose the health care reform proposal brought to the table by President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress. Even worse for Democrats is voters’ opposition to reconciliation.

A new poll from Rasmussen shows that the government has lost the consent of the governed:

The founding document of the United States, the Declaration of Independence, states that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Today, however, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% disagree and say the government does not have the necessary consent. Eighteen percent (18%) of voters are not sure.
[…]
Among voters under 40, 25% believe government has the consent of the governed. That compares to 19% of those ages 50 to 64 and 16% of the nation’s senior citizens.

Those who earn more than $100,000 a year are more narrowly divided on the question, but those with lower incomes overwhelming reject the notion that today’s government has the consent from which to derive its just authority. Those with the lowest incomes are the most skeptical.

When a government constantly goes off course by defying the Constitution, colludes with business to undermine taxpayers and attempts to alter rights and liberties that existed before the foundation of the government, you cannot expect anything less than people to lose faith.

A new Pew poll shows that the mindset of voters could be toxic for vulnerable incumbents:

America’s current anti-incumbent mood rivals levels in 1994 and 2006, the previous two wave election years in which the majority party was swept out of power, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey out today on the midterm election climate.

Asked if they would like to see their congressman re-elected, just 49% said “yes” while 31% said “no.” The 31% who currently say they do not want their incumbent reelected is well above the 23% average in the previous 29 Pew surveys.

These numbers mirror an October 1994 Pew survey—taken just weeks before Republicans swept Democrats out of power—in which 49% said their incumbent should be re-elected and 29% disagreed. In February 2006, when Republicans controlled Congress, some 59% said their incumbent should be re-elected while 28% said they should not. Democrats took control that fall.

While the anti-incumbent feeling may be in the air this year, the re-election rate is extremely for House members (90% in 1994, 94% in 2006). Members of the Senate tend to have a higher turnover (92% in 1994, 79% in 2006), but incumbents still find their way back

A new Gallup survey shows declining numbers across the board for President Barack Obama, including a new low on the economy.

Here is a look at the issues surveyed:

The most concerning numbers have to be health care, the budget defict and the economy. These are issues the administration has spent the most political capital on in the last couple weeks. This poll shows he is continuing to lose independents, with on only 29% approving of Obama’s handling of the economy. Even worse, 24% percent of independents approve on his handling of health care and the budget deficit.

Calls for bipartisanship aren’t necessarily too late, but Democrats have absolutely no momentum right now, and both parties in Congress seem so far apart on every issue.