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The Spectacle Blog

Poll Shows Obama Approval Rating on Health Care Drops Below 50 Pct

By Philip Klein on 7.20.09 @ 10:38AM

Presient Obama plans this week to step up his efforts on health care (capped with a primetime news conference on Wednesday), but a new Washington/Post ABC News poll finds that only 49 percent of Americans approve of his handling of health care, compared to 44 percent who disapprove. By comparison, back in April, the same poll found 57 percent approval to 29 percent disapproval. In other words, over the past three months, as Obama consistently pounded on the drum for health care legislation, his net approval on the issue has shrunken dramatically. And if you look deeper into the numbers, it gets even worse for Obama, because those who now strongly disapprove of his handling of health care outnumber those who strongly approve 28 percent to 22 percent.

While Obama remains broadly popular, with a 59 percent overall approval rating, that's down from 65 percent last month. And this is part of a larger phenomenon -- no matter the issue, the trend for Obama is south. Approval of his handling of the economy is now at 52 percent, compared with 60 percent in February and on the federal deficit, approval has dropped to 43 percent, compared with 52 percent in March. Now 56 percent say they're confident Obama's economic program will improve the economy, compared to 72 percent in January. Ironically for a president who was elected on economic rather than foreign policy issues, the approval of his handling of Afghanistan is holding steady at 62 percent.

There's also evidence Obama is losing the image war. In March, just 32 percent said Obama was "an old-style, tax-and-spend Democrat" while 62 percent said he was "a new-style Democrat who will be careful with the public's money." But the public is starting to catch on to him, and 43 percent say he's a tax-and-spend Democrat, and now 52 percent see him as an new brand.

Some other noteworthy findings: 61 percent say they oppose another stimulus package; 55 percent say it's more important to avoid a deficit right now than increase spending to boost the economy; and 54 percent say they would support a health care bill containing the major provisions of the House Democrats bill. But as Jake Tapper notes, "That's not an incredibly high number, and that didn't include any of the pushback language that for so long has worked so effectively on countering health care reform efforts."

But before Congressional Republicans get too excited, they should keep in mind that their own approval ratings are still in the toilet at just 36 percent.

View all comments (6) | Leave a comment

Pete| 7.20.09 @ 10:53AM

So, for those still in favor of this clown and his corrupt, ruinous policies...it is apparently OK to take our money and give it to your buddies or command the earth to cool (further), but we begin to draw the line when you want to decide who lives and who dies. Hey, it's a start.

Bob| 7.20.09 @ 11:05AM

Be careful and don't take too much joy in these numbers. Here's a summary chart from the WSJ that has tracked approval ratings for all Presidents. These track closely to the economy.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-presapp0605-31.html

If you take a look at Reagan's numbers specifically, his lowest was 39% in 1983 long after he cut taxes. His highest was 64% in 1986. At the end of his term, that dropped to 57%.

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-presapp0605-31.html

As with Reagan, when the economy turns around -- and it will because recessions are cyclical -- Obama's numbers will rise again.

To further Phil's point about Republican approval ratings, they are not only low, but they are near the lowest they've ever been:

http://dccc.org/blog/archives/republican_approval_ratings_at_all_time_low/

On the other hand, as of May, the Democrats were looking much better than Republicans:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/118318/Approval-Congress-Remains-Steady.aspx

I expect that the Dems numbers have dropped a bit from May and the Republicans have raised slightly, but are still behind the Dems. The ratings in Congress seem to have more to do with action than ideology. If they pass health care, I would expect the Dems ratings to rise again.

Tim| 7.20.09 @ 12:07PM

Right now there are a lot of scared grandmas out there that think Barack "sonny" Obama is going to cut their meds, cancel their surgeries and pull the plug on them. These people tend to vote Democrat but if, after all these years , it looks like a Democrat is going to cut them off, they will switch to the GOP faster than Clinton took Lewinsky.

hsr0601| 7.20.09 @ 1:55PM

How can anybody expect vibrant economic activity / JOB CREATION ( faulted by the non-alternative naysayers to distract a series of scandals ) and housing boom in the context one in two Americans say someone in their family skipped pills, postponed or cut back on needed medical care due to the cost ?

And there have been many different polls that show the public is overwhelmingly in favor of Obama's version of reform, which includes a public option (for example, a CBS News/New York Times poll had 72% in favor and even a poll done by healthcare reform opponents showed 83% in favor of the public option).

Thank You !

Don| 7.20.09 @ 2:00PM

Tim,
Do you remember that it could be depended upon for the Democrats to frighten oldsters that the Repubs were going to take away their Social Security. Every election they would play that card.