Open thread: Hey, who’s up for an hour-long infomercial on ObamaCare?

posted at 9:40 pm on June 24, 2009 by Allahpundit
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10 p.m. ET on ABC. What better way to wind down from terror in Tehran and heart-ache in South Carolina than by watching Obama play pattycake with Gibson and Sawyer? The World News Tonight audience has already been duly informed that “the need is obvious” for health-care reform. Now it’s The One’s time to shine.

And he’d better shine awfully bright.

A majority of Americans see government action as critical to controlling runaway health-care costs, but there is broad public anxiety about the potential impact of reform legislation and conflicting views about the types of fixes being proposed on Capitol Hill, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Most respondents are “very concerned” that health-care reform would lead to higher costs, lower quality, fewer choices, a bigger deficit, diminished insurance coverage and more government bureaucracy. About six in 10 are at least somewhat worried about all of these factors, underscoring the challenges for lawmakers as they attempt to restructure the nation’s $2.3 trillion health-care system…

Survey questions that equate the public option approach with the popular, patient-friendly Medicare system tend to get high approval, as do ones that emphasize the prospect of more choices. But when framed with an explicit counterargument, the idea receives a more tepid response. In the new Post-ABC poll, 62 percent support the general concept, but when respondents were told that meant some insurers would go out of business, support dropped sharply, to 37 percent.

Cato’s liveblogging it so check there frequently for libertarian-flavored fact-checking. We’ll have video later in the unlikely event that something important gets said. While you wait, be sure to read David Brooks’s piece yesterday about the Senate’s health-care bill. With even his most trusted RINO allies wavering, The One’s margin for error here is nil.

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