Poll: Republicans Admit Obamacare Might Not Be The End Of The World

Marcia Keck, of Conway, S.C., holds a sign during a protest outside the statehouse on the first day of the South Carolina Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, in Columbia, S.C. People who want lawmakers to pass a bi... Marcia Keck, of Conway, S.C., holds a sign during a protest outside the statehouse on the first day of the South Carolina Legislature, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2014, in Columbia, S.C. People who want lawmakers to pass a bill preventing the implementation of some of the new federal health care law protested in the rain. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt) MORE LESS
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As Obamacare’s first enrollment period ends and the law becomes a more established part of U.S. policy, the Republican base appears to be having an epiphany: Maybe it’s not the end of the world.

A new Gallup poll found that the number of self-identified GOPers who think the law won’t affect them spiked 20 percentage points from a month ago.

Back in late February and early March, 72 percent of Republicans said that Obamacare would make their lives and their family’s lives worse in the long run. But just a month later, that figure fell to 51 percent. The percentage who said that the law wouldn’t make much difference leapt from 23 percent to 43 percent over the same period.

Adding in Democrats and independents, 43 percent of Americans said that Obamacare wouldn’t make much difference for them, 32 percent said it would make things worse and 24 percent said it would make things better.

Those change feelings, particularly among Republicans, didn’t translate into more robust support for the law, however. Its approval and disapproval ratings were effectively unchanged from Gallup’s last poll: 43 percent approved and 54 percent disapproved.

The poll, conducted from April 7 to 8, surveyed 1,009 U.S. adults. Its margin of error is 4 percentage points.

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Notable Replies

  1. Where do republicans go now with such a confused base?

  2. OT : new comments are certainly different .

  3. Comments still problematic. A couple of hours ago I tried to post a comment and it just kept “loading” though when I clicked through to the full comments page, I could see it, thought w/o my avatar.

    Edit: Seems to be working now, with this comment.

  4. I’m commenting just because I can!! That drop doomsday prediction is impressive and also infuriating b/c it indicates that many., many people don’t have a clue what they are talking about.

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