DIAGNOSIS:  POLICY FAILURE - AT 8:03 A.M. ET:  With all the foreign trauma around us, let's not forget that a health-care "reform" package, aimed at impacting a sixth of the American economy and the life of every citizen, is making its way through Congress.  It's been talked about for months.  At the end of this time, what do the American people think about it?  From The Politico:

You could forgive a typical poll-driven pool for being driven around the bend by health reform.

Legislators hoping to learn what their constituents think about the issue — and how to vote to keep them happy — face a dizzying deluge of hard-to-reconcile data, some of which suggests that voters are more than a little confused, as well.

What to make of it, for example, when one poll finds that 63 percent think “death panels” are a “distortion” or “scare tactic,” and only 30 percent think the issue is “legitimate,” while another finds that 41 percent believe that people would die because “government panels” would prevent them from getting the treatment they needed?

Or when one survey finds that 55 percent of Americans support the public option, while another says 79 percent favor one — but also notes that only 37 percent people surveyed actually knew what “public option” meant?

COMMENT:  Glib story, but read it with two eyes.  The wording of polls affects the result.  But, just as important, the story points to the catastrophic failure of the Obama administration, and its allies in Congress, to explain their own health plan, to the extent that they ever had a complete plan. 

Why is that many, if not most, people can tell you the general provisions of their health insurance, but don't know what the president of the United States is proposing?  The liberals will blame it on Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck, or whoever the Villain of the Week is.  But the reality is that I can't recall any issue this critical that has been so poorly handled or explained by those in Washington who presumably should know.

Something is going to come out of Congress, unless moderate Democrats join with Republicans to put the brakes on.  We'd better find out what that "something" is.

September 28, 2009