Democratic congressional leaders have scheduled a House vote on their national health care plan this Sunday, but 59% of U.S. voters say most members of Congress will not understand what is in the plan before they vote on it.
The Democratic leadership's struggle to pass the Senate health care bill in the House looks like a great case study for political scientists. They have many examples of the leaders of a party majority trying to push controversial legislation through a balky chamber.
Many individual elements of the health care plan working its way through Congress remain popular, but the cost of the plan and finding ways to pay for it remain key reasons why most voters continue to oppose the proposed legislation.
Several cities and states, faced with big budget problems, are considering so-called “sin taxes” on things like junk food and soft drinks. But just 33% of Americans think these sin taxes are a good idea.
Another funny thing happened in what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised would be "the most ethical Congress in history." Monica Conyers, the wife of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, pleaded guilty last year to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit bribery that prompted her to resign from the Detroit City Council last year. This month, she was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
The Pennsylvania governor’s race is slightly tighter this month, but Republican Tom Corbett still posts double-digit leads on his three top Democratic opponents.
Former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes now runs virtually even with all four of his top Republican challengers in the 2010 gubernatorial race in Georgia.
The top Republican contenders for governor of Wisconsin still hold modest leads over the likely Democratic nominee, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
With congressional Democrats pushing to pass their health care plan in the next few days, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 34% of U.S. voters now think health care reform is the goal President Obama is most likely to achieve, up 10 points from last month. However, this finding is still down 13 points from the end of last year.
The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it is halting funding of the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, but 59% of Americans believe the United States should continue to build that fence.
Fifty percent (50%) of U.S. voters say they are less likely to vote for their representative in Congress this November if he or she votes for the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.
Demagogues often prosper under the rules of democracy, intimidating the moderate and preying on the weak-minded. But in a healthy society, such figures cannot cross a final threshold of decency without jeopardizing their own status -- and today's right-wing nihilists seem to be on the verge of doing just that.
Back in 1980, the Washington Post ’s David S. Broder wrote a notable book, The Changing of the Guard , about the generational turnover of national and state leadership occurring at that time. It’s happening all over again. We’ll see dozens of congressional seats switching hands and sides in November, but the greatest transformation will be in the statehouses.
Longtime incumbent John McCain now leads conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth by just seven points in Arizona’s hotly contested Republican Senate Primary race.
Surprise, surprise. Sen. Chris Dodd's financial-regulation proposal raises the possibility of substantial progress on the road to ending "too big to fail" and bailout nation for banks and other financial institutions.
Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold continues to lead his two announced Republican opponents in Wisconsin’s race for the U.S. Senate, and his hypothetical match-up with former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson is now a toss-up.
The federal government has launched its multi-million dollar effort to count the population of the United States, but just 25% of Americans think the final Census numbers accurately reflect the nation’s population.
Israel’s insistence on building new settlements in disputed Palestinian territory has heightened tensions with the United States. Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters think Israel should be required to stop those settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.
The president and the Democratic congressional leadership are fighting furiously to pass, with no Republican votes, the ever-less-popular health bill. An Associated Press poll last week shows that four in five Americans don't want the Democrats to pass a health care bill without bipartisan support, while almost all polls are showing support for the current bill to be at only 25 percent to 35 percent. And all polls show high negative intensity.
