The good news for President Obama is that 53% of voters nationwide support his plan to send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. Nearly as many (47%) support his plan to begin withdrawing troops from that war-torn country in 18 months.
Most Americans (52%) believe that there continues to be significant disagreement within the scientific community over global warming.
Only 27% of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone. That’s down five points from August.
Thirty-seven percent (37%) of voters nationwide now believe protests at congressional town hall meetings on the health care reform plan were phony efforts drummed up by special interest groups and lobbyists, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide favor limiting the amount of money a jury can award a plaintiff in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 29% disagree and 14% are not sure.
President Obama detailed his plan for winning – and ending – the war in Afghanistan in a long-awaited speech last night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of U.S. voters have been following recent news about Afghanistan, including 51% who say they’ve been following the news Very Closely.
Members of Congress may rely upon the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), but voters are skeptical. The CBO has projected that the health care legislation now being considered by Congress would make the federal budget deficit a bit smaller over the coming decade, but only 17% of voters believe that’s true.
The U.S. Senate is now formally beginning debate on a plan to reform health care in America, but most voters remain opposed to the plan working its way through Congress.
Only 18% of voters nationwide believe that most people join AARP, once known as the American Association of Retired Persons, because they support its political agenda, but it is still perceived by many as a partisan organization.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of voters nationwide now rate the U.S. health care system as good or excellent. That marks a steady increase from 44% at the beginning of October, 35% in May and 29% a year-and-a-half ago.
A blog entry posted at CQPolitics.com looked at a recent Rasmussen Reports poll and another by the Kaiser Family Foundation and concluded that the “new polls disagree on whether a government overhaul of the nation's health care system will leave people better off or worse off.”
The longer President Obama waits to make a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, the more voter support for that war appears to be ebbing away.
Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.
While the Senate is now preparing to debate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's 2000-plus-page version of the health care reform plan, 47% of Americans still believe the private sector rather than the federal government has the best chance of keeping health care costs down and the quality of medical care up.
Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans say the cost of prescription drugs will go up if the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats becomes law.
Twenty percent (20%) of Americans think what is good for China’s economy is good for the U.S. economy, as President Obama meets with Chinese leaders this week in an effort to ease economic tensions between the two nations.
Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. With the exception of bounces following nationally televised presidential appeals, that’s the highest level of support measured for the legislative effort all year.
Nearly half the nation’s voters still believe that global warming is caused primarily by long term planetary trends, not human activity
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the House version of health care reform legislation last week, but most voters are still opposed to the effort.
Seventy percent (70%) of U.S. voters rate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism as Very Important in terms of world history.
