Yet another poll suggests that conservative Republicans who are still proclaming “Repeal and Replace!” on Obamacare (without yet offering a detailed replacement plan) are on the wrong side history — and polling numbers:
A majority of Americans approve of the Supreme Court decision to continue allowing Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies in all states, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
The poll found that 62 percent of Americans support the King v. Burwell decision, while 32 percent disapprove.
The public’s approval of the King v. Burwell decision is higher than that of the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling, which also rejected a major challenge to the Obama-backed health care law. About half, 47 percent, approved and 43 percent disapproved of the ruling in that case, according to a Kaiser Health Tracking poll conducted in June 2012.
Despite the public’s largely favorable view of the court’s decision, opinions regarding the Affordable Care Act are divided, with 43 percent of Americans viewing the law favorably and 40 percent of Americans viewing the law unfavorably.
Of those who view the Affordable Care Act favorably, 91 percent support the King v. Burwell decision, compared with 30 percent of those who view the Affordable Care Act unfavorably.
In addition, the study found that Democrats and Independents were significantly more likely than Republicans to support the King v. Burwell decision.
Eighty-two percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Independents supported the decision as opposed to 29 percent of Republicans.
The study also found that a majority of Americans– 78 percent — believe that this decision will not be the end of the debate on health care.
This suggests 1)the law is here to stay and if a future Republican wave tries to replace it, it will not be easy to do 2)there are political scabs GOPers can pick at to (you guessed it) keep the support of the Republican base (the current Republican Party is the Party of the Base, for the Base and by the Base), 3)talk about how the Supreme Court is an activist court (“activist court” is the phrase partisans of each party use when they don’t like a ruling, but if they like a ruling it’s a wise court) will fall flat with the bulk of Americans who’ll take it for what it is: political pandering (to the base, of course).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.