Civitas Review Online

Our friends at Americans for Prosperity are up with a new health care ad featuring a breast cancer survivor reminding us the ramifications of passing Obamacare.

The folks over at the NC Justice Center offered up a double-whammy this week of self-contradiction. First up, Adam Searing penned this op-ed in the N&O urging Congress to pass some version of health care “reform” (public opinion be damned, of course).

He points out that, under the current, mostly-government run system, “Health insurance has never been more expensive than it is today for individuals, businesses and governments. The growth is unsustainable.”

Yet in the same article, he makes the claim that the reform he advocates for is “No scary ’socialist’ takeover of health care here – just quietly building on the current system.”

So why would he want to build upon the current system he readily admits as being unsustainable?

Moving on, NC Policy Watch discusses the rapid rise in food stamp recipients in North Carolina over the past year, noting “More than 1.2 million people in the state now receive food stamps. That is up 24 percent over a year ago.”

But in a recent post, Policy Watch defended the federal stimulus package, supporting the claims of an area economist.

…money spent on food stamps or unemployment directly stimulates the economy because people almost always spend it. That helps create jobs.

So if spending more money on food stamps “helps create jobs,” and North Carolina saw a jump of 24% in food stamp recipients last year – where are the jobs?

NC voters’ opinion of Pres. Barack Obama inched up in January and now is at 52% favorable, 37% unfavorable or a +15 spread, the widest its been since the beginning of the health care debate last summer.

Obama’s favorability rating basically fell off a cliff once the health care reform measure was launched last July bottoming out at a +3 in October and has been slowly climbing back off those lows.  While his policies and proposals are widely opposed by NC voters, he still remains personally likable.  But NC voters are separating their warm and fuzzy feelings for Obama the man and the icy cold feelings for his policies.

Chart of his favorable/unfavorable rating in NC:

When talking about health care reform, liberals often declare that it is simply unfair that the poor don’t have access to the same top quality care available to the rich. So why don’t they support a system (vouchers) where the poor can have access to the same top quality education currently only accessible to the rich (private schools)?

Support for Obamacare continues to struggle in North Carolina according to our latest poll with only 40% supporting and 48% in opposition.

We’ve had the public opposed to the bill by an 8-10 point margin since September and it doesn’t seem much has changed despite all the rhetoric and debate on both sides.

The breakdown by party is pretty remarkable but almost as expected.  Democrats support it (59-29), Republicans oppose it (13-77) and unaffiliateds are split evenly (41-42).

What stands out is the intensity gap between Republican opposition and Democratic support.  61 percent of Republicans “Strongly oppose” the measure, but only 39 percent of Democrats “Strongly support” it.

There is also a tremendous racial divide on the bill.  Whites oppose it 27-58, while blacks overwhelmingly support it 85-10.

We also polled whether coverage for abortion should be provided in the health care bill and as can be imagined, the public isn’t for that at all.  Only 24% support with 69% opposed.

Full press release and all the crosstabs and details here.

Over on the blog of Mark Binker at the Greensboro N&R, he has a clip of Sen. Kay Hagan speaking on the Senate floor decrying the difference in cost of health insurance between men and women.  She tells a story of how a 22 year old female staffer in her office would have to pay 3x as much for her health insurance as a 22 year old man.

Well, duh!  (Sorry, I’m being “snarky” again). Last I checked, men can’t have babies.  And as anyone who has had one recently will know, the cost of having a baby is pretty darn expensive.

Therefore, the cost for insurance companies to cover women is higher than men, thus… a higher policy premium.  Is this really that hard for a US Senator to understand?  And these are the people that are crafting health care reform?

Hagan is trying very hard to make a point, too bad common sense gets in the way of her attempt at some good old fashioned gender-inequity baiting.

Watching a master illusionist can be hypnotic.  Your mind gets caught up in the incredible while trying to figure out the reality of what you’ve just seen.  A brief in the “Under The Dome” blog does just such a maneuver when it refers to Christian ministers trying to “nudge” Sen Hagan on Healthcare.

The note tells us that several Christian ministers are pushing for her to ADOPT healthcare reform. So then your mind says, “hmm, Christian ministers pushing for healthcare reform, why?”

“Whenever people are suffering and dying due to lack of or denial of insurance, people of faith must speak out,” said the Rev. Tom Rhodes of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Raleigh.Several ministers, including the Rev. Nancy Petty of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church and the Rev. Denise Long of United Church of Christ, are expected to participate. A spokeswoman said 25 or more people are expected.

Are these liberal or conservative ministers?  Probably liberal, but not mentioned.  And oddly missing are the abortion implications on the health care reform which would make the ministers comments rather at odds with their theological beliefs.

Are people being denied healthcare?  Insurance yes, but they aren’t denied care or at least that’s not the front page news or the discussion.  It’s about costs.  Dying due to lack of healthcare?  WOW, that’s a heavy charge.

A great deal missing from this post, but then again, maybe I have higher expectations.  The truth is, most Christian ministers are NOT supporting this but that doesn’t stop our local paper from trying to create the illusion that they do.

Results of our new poll released today show NC voters are deeply divided on the President’s health care plan.  With few voters in the middle or ambivalent on the issue, Obama’s address to Congress tomorrow night is probably going to do very little to soothe either side.

Of the 662 registered voters we surveyed, 47.6% said they supported the plan, 47.0% said they were opposed.  Of that 40.6% said they were strongly opposed.

The bad news for President Obama and Congressional Democrats is that 53% of unaffiliated’s (aka swing voters) are opposed to the plan as well.  Basically, the only people in favor are the base Democrat voters.

Also of note, few think that the President’s plan will make health care either better (27.3%) or cheaper (20.5%).

Press release here.  Full results and crosstabs here.

Is WakeMed supporting ObamaCare? On September 3rd they are allowing Organizing for America to use the WakeMed North Healthplex for a rally in support of “Health Insurance Reform,” the new name for Health Care Reform (ObamaCare) which may shortly be changed to KennedyCare. As I posted in January, Organizing for America is President’s Obama political arm or permanent political campaign.  This is not the first time they have used Organizing for America to push legislation. But why is Wake Med participating in this?

I have not seen an official press release but there is this blog at WakeMed (the largest hospital and 4th largest employer in Wake County) and there is this youtube video by WakeMed President and CEO Bill Atkinson: 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUdMgOf8h8

It sure looks like he is pushing for some type of legislation and by allowing the Obama political machine to use his OUR hospital as a part of the campaign it would appear he is supporting ObamaCare. When the citizens of Wake County turned the county owned hospital over to a private non-profit corporation, did they really think this is what it would be used for?

I will be on State Governmment Radio with Dana Cope from the Service Employees International Union local 2008.  We discussed health care, the legislative session and other topics including John Edwards and Elvis Presley. Tune in and listen: