Because the latest Charlie Sykes blog post makes him seem more brain dead than usual.
He hails a Pew poll that claims:
Regarding health care reform, many of the key provisions remain popular though support for the overall package has slipped. More people now generally oppose the health care reform proposals in Congress (47%) than favor them (34%). This represents a decline in support for health care reform since mid-September, shortly after President Obama’s nationally televised address to Congress on the issue
Wow! Obama and the Democrats must be really out of step with Americans because god knows Merikans don't want a public option, higher taxes on the plutes to pay for health care ... except they do!
From the actual Pew site (which, admittedly, would have required Charlie to click through the story he Ed Morrisey story he read (and seriously, Hot Air ought to get residuals from Sykes given he gets half his content from them)):
Nonetheless, large percentages continue to support many of the essential elements of legislation being considered. Two-thirds (66%) favor mandating that all Americans have health insurance, with the government providing financial help for those unable to afford it. Nearly six-in-ten (59%) favor requiring employers to pay into a government health care fund if they do not provide health insurance coverage to their employees. A similar majority (58%) also favors raising taxes on families with incomes of more than $350,000 as a way to pay for reforms. And 55% say they favor a government health insurance plan to compete with private plans, which is largely unchanged from late July (52%).
Weird ... so solid majorities of Americans support policies that are anathema to Sykes' benighted listeners. Will Sykes share that science with his listeners? The Brawler has his doubts, as Charlie's contempt for their intellect (i.e., his refusal to share facts that conflict with their worldview) is well-known.
But why would this disconnect noted by the poll exist?
The disconnect between support for specific elements of health care legislation and overall opposition to the proposals in Congress appears to be driven by a lack of understanding about what is being proposed, the complexity of the topic, and declining trust in Congress. The percentage of Americans saying they have heard a lot about the bills in Congress to overhaul the health care system fell from 60% in mid-September to 46% currently. A separate weekly News Interest Index survey, released Oct. 8, found that a substantial majority of Americans (66%) continue to find the issue of health care reform “hard to understand.”
Surely, none of this lack of understanding is driven by folks like Sykes, who frequently make up shit about the various health care bills. Sykes, as you will remember, was an early disseminator of Elizabeth McCaughey's euthanasia lies.
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