A new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D) finds that health care has put the Democrats in a tricky situation — passing a bill with a public option doesn’t offer a clear political benefit, but not passing anything would cause an even greater problem.
The Democrats lead on an initial generic Congressional ballot by 46%-38%. If they pass a health care with a public option, the gap becomes 46%-41%. If they don’t pass a health care bill at all, though, it becomes a 40%-40% tie — reminiscent of the loss in Democratic support in 1994, after they failed to pass a health care bill.
“Clearly Democrats need to pass a health care bill if they want to do well at the polls next year,” said PPP president Dean Debnam, in the polling memo. “But they don’t need to take an all or nothing approach. Allowing the status quo to remain rather than accepting a bill without a public option would be a poor decision politically.”
The poll was conducted from November 13th to November 15th, before this past weekend’s vote in the Senate to proceed with debate on the health care bill. The margin of error is ±3%.
