The Kaiser Family Foundation's
monthly tracking poll is out for May, and it shows the same thing we've been seeing for months with the poll: Republicans still hate the law with white-hot intensity and everybody else isn't thrilled with it, but really want Congress to just stop fighting about it and start fixing it already. Which, by the way, perfectly encapsulates Republican leadership's "repeal/replace or fix"
dilemma: appease the base and the congressional crazies and vote to kick millions and millions of people off of insurance, or not?
This month, 45 percent of the public reports having an unfavorable view of the health care law and 38 percent report a favorable one. This 7-percentage point gap has held fairly steady since March, but is smaller than the 14- to 16-point unfavorable tilt in opinion measured in Kaiser tracking polls from November through January following the botched rollout of the health insurance exchanges.
Sharp political polarization continues to exist, with about two-thirds (64 percent) of Democrats having a favorable opinion of the law and three-quarters (75 percent) of Republicans expressing an unfavorable view. The intensity gap in opinion also continues, with nearly twice as many Republicans expressing a “very” unfavorable view as Democrats having a “very” favorable one (61 percent versus 36 percent).
Sixty-one percent of Republicans really, really hate it, and Republicans in Congress have to keep them happy or they'll go even crazier. That crazier than they already are does not seem possible, but that well is apparently bottomless, so don't expect the radicals to stop pushing repeal with all their might. But guess what else? Just about 60 percent want Congress to be spending their time on fixing the law, and just 34 percent (made up of the 61 percent of Republicans who hate it) are the only ones who are still talking repeal. Well, them and the tea party Republicans they elected. And Mitch McConnell.
Speaking of crazy, what's really interesting is that 37 percent of Republicans report that they or someone they are close to has been hurt by Obamacare. That's in comparison to 8 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of independents who report the same. Apparently, the law was nefariously designed to make life more difficult primarily for Republicans. But since Republicans are so good at playing professional victim, it's likelier that every sniffle, every sliver, every stubbed toe they've experienced since January is all the fault of Obamacare. So is any premium increase they might get. Seems like Obamacare also causes Republican amnesia—the selective forgetting that premiums have increased every year since the beginning of health insurance.
Meanwhile, 51 percent of everyone is just pleading with Congress to please, please deal with something else besides Obamacare. Who thinks the most important thing for Congress to do right now is to keep fighting over a law passed four years ago, has been declared constitutional, and has provided health insurance to millions and millions of people? Sixty percent of Republicans.
So in case you were wondering, no, Republicans in office and wanting to get elected can't really ever stop talking about repeal, even as they see diminishing returns. What they can do is postpone voting on it again before November, and meanwhile continue hoping that their gibberish fools enough people to get them through.