Angry Americans voice outrage at being asked to pay more for health coverage. Lawmakers and the White House say the public just doesn’t appreciate the benefits of the new health law. Opponents clamor for repeal before the program fully kicks in. The year was 1989, and the law was the […] Read more »
Americans distrust government health care – except if it’s Medicare
The problem-filled debut of the federal government’s healthcare.gov website, which was intended to be an easy way to give people access to insurance options, appears to have made what had been an unpopular law, even less popular, and increased concerns about the revamped health care system. In the latest Economist/YouGov […] Read more »
How much are we willing to pay for the pursuit of happiness?
Never mind the conventional speculation about whether the resolution of some political standoff in Washington favors Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, “entitlement” fans or skeptics. The more fundamental question, says Benjamin Radcliff, is this: Does it make people happier or not? Radcliff is a political scientist at Notre Dame […] Read more »
How Both Parties Ignore What Their Voters Want
One reason a serious budget negotiation seems unlikely this fall is that any meaningful assault on the federal deficit would require each party to confront the contradictions between its fiscal agenda and its electoral coalition. Two long-term trends are creating this tension. One is an electoral reshuffling: Republicans increasingly depend […] Read more »
Americans Reject by 61% Obama Demand for Clean Debt Vote
Americans by a 2-to-1 ratio disagree with President Barack Obama’s contention that Congress should raise the U.S. debt limit without conditions. Instead, 61 percent say that it’s “right to require spending cuts when the debt ceiling is raised even if it risks default,” because Congress lacks spending discipline, according to […] Read more »
The Public and the Conflict over Future Medicare Spending
… As we reported in the Journal in 2011, there has been little public support for major policy changes aimed at reducing Medicare spending to lower the federal deficit. This article goes further and seeks to document the underlying beliefs that may shape the public response to future efforts to […] Read more »