Turkeys And Sheep Are Not Intelligent: Reporting The News On The Turkeys In DC And The “Rafter/Gang/Flock” Collaborators.
New Poll Undercuts GOP Claims Of A Midterm Mandate
By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans want the Congress to keep the new health care law or actually expand it, despite Republican claims that they have a mandate from the people to kill it, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.
The post-election survey showed that 51 percent of registered voters want to keep the law or change it to do more, while 44 percent want to change it to do less or repeal it altogether.
Driving support for the law: Voters by margins of 2-1 or greater want to keep some of its best-known benefits, such as barring insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. One thing they don't like: the mandate that everyone must buy insurance.
At the same time, the survey showed that a majority of voters side with the Democrats on another hot-button issue, extending the Bush era tax cuts that are set to expire Dec. 31 only for those making less than $250,000.
The poll also showed the country split over ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy prohibiting gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, with 47 percent favoring its repeal and 48 percent opposing it.
The results signal a more complicated and challenging political landscape for Republicans in Congress than their sweeping midterm wins suggested. Party leaders call the election a mandate, and vow votes to repeal the health care law and to block an extension of middle-class tax cuts unless tax cuts for the wealthy also are extended.
"The political give and take is very different than public opinion," said Lee M. Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., which conducted the poll. "On health care, there is a wide gap between public opinion and the political community."
Far from the all-or-nothing positions staked out by politicians and pundits, Americans are more divided about the health care law.
On the side favoring it, 16 percent of registered voters want to let it stand as is.
Another 35 percent want to change it to do more. Among groups with pluralities who want to expand it: women, minorities, people younger than 45, Democrats, liberals, Northeasterners and those making less than $50,000 a year.
Lining up against the law, 11 percent want to amend it to rein it in.
Another 33 percent want to repeal it.
Among groups with pluralities favoring repeal: men, whites, those older than 45, those making more than $50,000 annually, conservatives, Republicans and tea party supporters.
Independents, who swung to the Republicans in the Nov. 2 elections, are evenly divided on how to handle the health care law, with 36 percent for repealing it and 12 percent for restraining it — a total of 48 percent negative — while 34 percent want to expand it and 14 percent want to leave it as is — also totaling 48 percent.
Several benefits of the new law are broadly popular.
Registered voters by a margin of 59 percent to 36 percent want to keep the requirement that insurance companies provide coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Among supporters, Republicans want to keep that part of the law rather than repeal it by a margin of 51-45. Independents want to keep it by a margin of 59-37. Even 46 percent of conservatives and 48 percent of tea party supporters want to keep it.
The section of the law requiring insurance companies to allow young adults to remain on their parents' policies until age 26 also is popular, with voters saying keep it rather than repeal it by a margin of 68 percent to 29 percent.
Among those who like it, 75 percent of women, 80 percent of independent women, and 54 percent of Republican women.
Voters, by a margin of 57 percent to 32 percent, also want to keep the part of the law that closes the so-called "donut hole" in Medicare prescription drug coverage.
They turn a solid thumbs down on the law's mandate that every American must buy insurance, with 65 percent calling that unconstitutional and 29 percent saying it should be kept.
A majority of every type of American called the mandate wrong, except for Democrats overall and Democratic men in particular. Among critics of the mandate: 50 percent of liberals, 53 percent of Democratic women, 68 percent of independents, and 83 percent of tea party supporters.
As Congress prepares to debate whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, the poll showed that 51 percent want to extend the tax cuts only for households making less than $250,000 a year, and 45 percent want to extend the tax cuts for all.
Those who support tax cuts only for those making less than $250,000 a year include minorities, Democrats, liberals and moderates, women, college graduates, Midwesterners and Northeasterners.
Those who want to extend all of the tax cuts, including for the wealthy, include Republicans, tea party supporters, conservatives, Southerners and Westerners,
Independents were closely divided, with 49 percent for extending only the "middle class" tax cuts, and 48 percent for extending all of them.
METHODLOGY
This survey of 1,020 adults was conducted Nov. 15-18. Adults 18 and older residing in the continental U.S. were interviewed by telephone. Telephone numbers were selected based upon a list of telephone exchanges from throughout the nation. The exchanges were selected to ensure that each region was represented in proportion to its population. To increase coverage, this land-line sample was supplemented by respondents reached through random dialing of cell phone numbers. The two samples were then combined. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
There are 810 registered voters. The results for this subset have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. There are 371 Democrats and Democratic leaning independents and 337 Republicans and Republican leaning independents. The results for these subsets have margins of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points and plus or minus 5.5 percentage points, respectively. The error margin increases for cross-tabulations.
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
For more McClatchy politics coverage visit Planet Washington
“WAS DICK CHENEY IN NORTH KOREA LAST WEEK?”..AND OTHER ANNOYING QUESTIONS!”
http://chrisbearde.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/was-dick-cheney-in-north-korea-last-week-and-other-annoying-questions/
“WAS DICK CHENEY IN NORTH KOREA LAST WEEK?” “WHY IS THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY TRYING TO KILL ENTIRE FAMILIES?”
….AND OTHER IMPORTANT QUESTIONS!
After reading Chris Hedges prognosis of the future of Corpo-Fascist America on the Alternet blog.. and realizing any further diatribes concerned trying to alter our political course would be completely futile… we hereby return to cynical comedy for ever…perhaps!
THE MUSINGS OF NEWT GINGRICH AND OR OTHER LIKE MINDED EGO MANIACS WHO ACTUALLY THINK THEY CAN RUN A COUNTRY COME TO MIND.
Glen and Bill and Sean and the rest of the Keystone Cop-outs will every day bring us quotes of such 3 Stooges qualities that defy reason and go beyond the pale and in to a bucket of horse-crap!
We will always have the “Housewives of Plastic Surgery” to kick around…and “The Face that Launched a Thousand Lifts” Mister Bruce Jenner and the fabulous KARDASHIAN “shop ‘till they droppers are a constant reminder of the 1% who don’t want to pay taxes like the rest of us assholes!!
Yes these are the Cheap jokes about the cheap folks..folks!
REALITY TELEVISION has become soooo important in lowering the cultural limbo poll down to floor level where only lowlifes can make the grade!
On any given night we can watch enormous fat people sweating the mega- pounds off for dollars ignorant rude people getting ruder…non dancing C grade celebrities giving their professional partner’s hernias…”Survivors” eating grubs …family members beating the shit out of each other… nasty assed judges telling mental cripples how totally lacking in human dignity or talent they are…all this and other spiritually enlightening acts of “ non- professional “ entertainment.
We lap it up…we love it…it makes us feel better… we are fat … we are rude… we are untalented..we’d like to beat the shit out of family members…we all know who they are too!!
THEY SHARE OUR IDEALS..
THEY SHARE OUR PROBLEMS..THEY ARE JUST LIKE US…BUT THEY ARE NOT US .. THEY ARE “THEM”..”THEM PEOPLE” NEXT DOOR..”THEM RELATIONS” THAT WE ONLY SEE AT THANKSGIVING .
We give thanks we only see them at thanksgiving ‘caus they suck!
Glad to be sheep…glad to be drones… glad to watch FOX NEWS and feel comfortable about being white and being told what to believe in!!
So relaxing…isn’t it.. going through the full body scans at the “aeroports “ knowing that the nice people patting us down are making us safe from the attack of the underpants bombers in our midst….But let’s get the body pat people out of Government hands and into the hands of free enterprise. We’d rather have them BLACKWATER dudes fiddlin’ with our parts than any damn Obama run thing.
And as for North Korea.. when we get Sarah running the country she’s just gonna nuke those Chink bastards.. All of them Asiatics…!
THEN AMERICA WILL BECOME ONE BIG FULL TIME REALITY SHOW ..IT’LL BE “SARAH PALIN’S ENTIRE AMERICA!”
Now we’re gonna go down to the Cheesecake Factory and have ourselves some 1,500 calorie , 2,500 sodium content Turkey Cheese Burgers and curly fries and an entire 4,000 calorie Strawberry Shortcake cheese cake…
**disclaimer..To all of those who might come across these ravings ….it’s plain to see that I’m in a minority as reality television is huge and entertaining so that’s a choice we all have the freedom to make .. The GOP MAY BE THE OTHER CHOICE and will probably rule this country for the rest of time ….But until these totally awful heartless mean spirited insane people finally kill off this country that I’ve lived and loved in …it is my right as it is yours to make my choice …speak my piece..This is then is my blog today… my blog piece .. but nobody at no “aeroport” is ever gonna touch my other piece without at least telling me they love me .
Irene Botsko lost her job at a local bank in February 2009. Now, she and others who have depleted their savings or exhausted unemployment benefits are seeking help at a time when resources already are stretched thin.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 02:56 AM
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
ED MATTHEWS | DISPATCH
Irene Botsko, left, collects food with her son, Shaun Newcomer, and volunteer Gloria Woodard at Lutheran Social Services' food pantry. She's grateful, but angry and embarrassed that she needs help.
Botsko, who has been unemployed for 21 months, looks through the bag of Thanksgiving fixings she received from Lutheran Social Services' food pantry. With her is volunteer Gloria Woodard.
Wearing a jacket and dress pants, Irene Botsko might have looked a bit out of place when she walked into a South Side food pantry this week.
She wasn't.
The 49-year-old divorced mother of one lost her bank job 21 months ago and has been unable to find steady work since then. Her savings is gone, and she's living on $267 a week in unemployment benefits and some help from friends. She struggles to keep up with the mortgage on her Columbus condominium.
Botsko personifies a growing demographic that is causing holiday demand to rise at food pantries. The needy are former middle-class workers who have lost their jobs or are earning less. Many have depleted their savings and exhausted unemployment benefits. Some have lost their homes.
Pantry operators expect demand to continue to rise as more jobless workers exhaust unemployment benefits. Botsko has six weeks left unless Congress extends benefits before a lame-duck session wraps up for the year. Congress has extended benefits four times in the past year, but the House rejected an extension in its latest vote on Nov. 18.
This week, as Botsko waited her turn to "shop" at the Lutheran Social Services food pantry on S. Champion Avenue, she repeatedly checked her cell phone, anxious to hear about a job interview she'd had the day before.
"I think it went well," she said. "They were smiling."
But until a job offer comes, Botsko must rely on others for help.
This week, it came from the pantry and a friend who wanted to be sure she had food for Thanksgiving and other meals during the holiday weekend. As a result, Botsko is able to host her 26-year-old son, Shaun Newcomer; his visiting girlfriend; and two family friends who until recently were unemployed, too.
"There are so many feelings and emotions," said Botsko, who was laid off from her job as a commercial-loan processor at Huntington National Bank in February 2009.
She's grateful for the help but angry and embarrassed that she needs it.
"I've worked since I was 15 years old," she said. "I was the one who was volunteering, and I was the one giving to food drives."
More than 44 percent of Ohioans visiting food pantries have been out of work for more than two years. Nearly 14 percent worked in managerial or professional jobs, said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks.
"This great recession has brought many new faces to food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens across Ohio and the nation," she said.
Lutheran Social Services' two Columbus pantries provided Thanksgiving groceries to 1,600 families this week.
Botsko said she tries hard to focus on the positive, such as her son's upcoming graduation from Ohio State University with a master's degree in Chinese studies, and she is hopeful that she'll find a job before her benefits run out.
But optimism is a challenge, and Botsko acknowledged that some days she struggles to stay strong.
"It's been a roller coaster," she said. "There have been times when I didn't know if I wanted to live. You do everything you are supposed to, but ..."
Most days, she said, she feels hopeful and grateful for the connections she has made during the past 21 months. Among them is Gloria Woodard, a pantry volunteer who made her feel at ease and helped load her cart with pork and cheese, potatoes and canned goods.
"My car hasn't been this full of food for I don't know how long."
Information about help for unemployed Ohioans and others in need is available at www.ohiobenefits.org.
Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind contributed to this story.
No comments:
Post a Comment