Washington Poll on Health Care Reports Strong Support for Public Option

The results of a poll on health care priorities that was taken prior to last year’s general election will be released Monday by The Washington Poll. The group reports that, although only 18 percent of respondents (a pool of 724 registered Washington state voters) stated that health care reform was their top issue of importance, 75 percent affirmed some degree support for a public option and 52 percent approved of paying higher taxes to provide universal availability of coverage.

The Washington Poll is a project conducted in the University of Washington’s Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race, and Sexuality (WISER). In 2009, in polling regarding the races for King County Executive and Seattle Mayor, The Washington Poll accurately determined an eleventh-hour swing to Dow Constantine in race for county chief but incorrectly projected that Joe Mallahan would take over from Greg Nickels in Seattle City Hall, not current mayor Mike McGinn.

The responses for the group’s recently released survey on health care-related issues were gathered by telephone during the period of October 14-16, 2009. The reported margin of error is plus or minus 3.6 percent. The full report can be viewed here.

Three recent national polls conducted regarding the Democratic health care plan have indicated a six to eight-point margin of opposition to the current package. Specifically, the most recent Rasmussen poll, taken after the much-ballyhooed health care summit between GOP and Democratic leadership, registered 52 percent against and only 44 percent in favor. That survey also contained the revelation that 63 percent of respondents felt that passing smaller reforms was a smarter path to improving the health care system, and to that end The Washington Poll may be useful to politicians in identifying what those smaller issues might be.

Skepticism is, however, prudent in considering the weight that should be given to a four-month-old poll reporting strong support for key elements of the President’s health care package. In terms of gauging public opinion on heatedly debated policy issues, a four months aging of the data can be like the difference between sipping Chianti and spitting vinegar. Cynicism may even be warranted considering that its release comes just as Democrats in Washington, D.C. are caucusing to cross the Rubicon and pass a health care bill using the nuclear option of reconciliation.

But capriciously dismissing polls one does not like is a surefire technique for giving Murphy’s Law jurisdiction to sideswipe one’s own cause. An outlier poll can have a strong effect on the minds of voters if the media chooses not to scrutinize carefully or place in proper context the results. GOP strategists will need to be aware of reports like that of The Washington Poll as the full-court press goes into action this week.

If Democrats do opt to send the bill to the president by way of reconciliation, their public relations strategy may be to prominently cite selected surveys to show that their actions were, in fact, popular.

Would a Jedi mind trick strategy like that work to pass healthcare amid low public support by simultaneously informing the public that they were in favor of the measure? In politics, literally anything can happen.

Gov. Gregoire to Sign Suspension of I-960 Into Law

If anyone out there still remembers the great Johnny Carson’s (host of NBC’s The Tonight Show pre-Jay Leno) fortune-telling character Carnac the Magnificent, read on. For those who do not, take a quick detour to watch this video, and return with your cultural intelligence improved.

Now…

Imagine the sounds of a number 10 envelope being opened, blown into, and an index card being pulled from within. The Magnificent Carnac reads aloud:

Walt Disney’s cryogenically-frozen body, Lindsey Lohan’s acting career, and Washington state’s Initiative 960 tax restraint law.

What are three things currently on ice that have the same chance of being revived as Tiger Woods if he fainted at a conference of the National Organization of Women.

Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., Washington governor Christine Gregoire will sign Senate Bill 6130 that put on ice the voter-approved I-960 that would have forced a two-thirds vote in the Legislature on all tax increase measures. SB 6130 postpones full enactment of I-960 until July of 2011, just enough time to do a little free-wheeling tax raisin’ and for Democrats to figure out how to legally kill off the spending restraint law while it sleeps, like a vampire story in reverse.

According to sources in Olympia, the signing will take place in the governor’s private conference room.

Gov. Gregoire still has the power to veto sections of the bill and Sens. Mike Hewitt and Joe Zarelli delivered a letter to her on Monday requesting that she strike the repeal of non-binding public advisory votes on tax increases. Cross your fingers but the reality is that the request hasn’t a meatball’s chance in Michael Moore’s lunchbox.

For those who have the stomach, read the full text of the legislation Gregoire will sign into law. If that doesn’t floor you, the Washington Policy Center plans to publish the I-960 public disclosure that would have been printed in the voters’ pamphlet for this year’s general election.

Remember SB 6130 on Election Day 2010.

I-960 on ice: Murder on the Olympia Express

A telegraph requesting the services of Agatha Christie’s masterful detective Hercule Poirot is unnecessary in resolving what happened in Olympia Wednesday evening. Democrats in the Washington state Legislature sent a clear message to the people: We are the governors and you are the governed, and there is no reciprocity in that relationship.

By passing Senate Bill 6130 to suspend the requirement for a two-thirds vote to raise taxes — a measure approved by a majority of voters in a 2007 statewide election following an initiative campaign that was opposed by a barrage of well-funded arguments against — Democratic lawmakers in Olympia threw a withering haymaker at the notion that people, not government, ultimately hold the reins of power.

The Democratic phalanx in support of SB 6130 was not executing a partisan attack against Republicans. Even the voters were really only caught in the line of fire. Democrats were, in fact, performing a full frontal ideological assault on the notion that power in our system is ours first.

On the morning after, Northwest-area mega-blog Publicola kicked off the public relations campaign for Democrats in tight races. The headline of the Morning Fizz post read “The Democrats on the House Side Bucked Their Senate Cohorts,” implying to readers that a stalwart group of moderates opposed the suspending I-960.

Publicola cites as evidence that freethinkers exist in Olympia’s majority party the one-vote margin of passage despite the maximum 61-vote horsepower they’re capable of. A more likely explanation (and one that the experienced political writers at Publicola are well aware of) is that the ten “mavericks” were let go by their caucus because their votes were not needed. Pure politics and nothing more. Need proof? Play the home version of “Where’s Democratic Dissent?” and review the video of the debates (TVW is an invaluable resource for this) to find any evidence that any of the Democrats voting no offered words on the floor that could have harmed them with the liberal base.

It should be noted, for all would-be secessionists and radicals out there, that what the State Legislature has done to set aside Initiative 960 is not, on its face, unlawful or unconstitutional. Although the initiative process allows citizens to propose laws without the consent of the government, state law does not hold initiatives above laws made by the legislative body in terms of their being subject to amendment and/or repeal. This is a common sense safeguard against mob rule. The safeguard against governmental suppression of the people’s will is ultimately found in our elections, but also in extreme cases in the ability to recall certain elected officials.

And yet, although the Legislature acted lawfully, lawfulness and morality do not ride on the same ticket. The degree to which voters feel that their elected officials acted without regard for the higher standard of morality in their vote on I-960 will ultimately be felt at the polls. A decisive vote to eject Democrats from office could be the only way to remind lawmakers that it is our power first, not theirs.

For those who can’t wait until November 7^th to register their opinions, Democrats will be making a victory tour this weekend. Town halls are being organized and details are available through your legislator’s office. The “Find Your Legislator” tool on the Washington State Legislature website will let you know who to call.

House Republicans Fight Late Into The Night For I-960

The voter’s shield against runaway government spending by the State of Washington, Initiative 960 is perilously close to temporarily losing its most crucial piece, the requirement that the state Legislature pass a two-thirds vote for measures to increase taxes. The engrossed version of Senate Bill 6130 was moved to the House floor for consideration and a vote, and House Republicans in Olympia kept the lights on until close to midnight Tuesday after forcing a six-hour floor debate on a series of GOP-sponsored amendments, the net effect of which would have been to “indefinitely postpone” the Legislature’s plan to put voter-approved tax restraint law I-960 in cold storage.

If SB 6130 becomes law in its current form it would postpone enactment of I-960’s two-thirds requirement for tax increases until July 2011.

For those Washington conservatives who have griped that Republicans in Olympia are indistinguishable from their tax-and-spend neighbors across the aisle, the tone and spirit of Tuesday’s flurry of impromptu speeches offered a sneak peek at something different.

“We are not California. We are Washington, and we are Washingtonians. We’re strong and we’re proud people… we’re not going to bow down to recession by putting burdensome taxes on our people,” Rep. Brad Klippert said. (Click here to listen to Rep. Klippert’s remarks.)

Rep. Glenn Anderson later picked up the ball and succinctly encapsulated what is different about Republicans and the majority Democratic Party.

“Economic growth is essential,” Anderson said, going on to characterize Democratic tax-and-spend solutions as “chasing a Band-Aid to avoid the pain” of difficult choices.

Their voices were only two among a unified chorus of Republicans calling for a bipartisan step back from the precipice both to assess the ethicality of reversing the will of the voters as well as to visit the total budget – expenditures and revenues – before gutting the tax restraint provisions in I-960 and further eroding the faith of the people in their government.

A small ray of light did pierce the House’s dark decision in the form of its adoption of the Finance Committee amendment that allows the transparency provisions of I-960 to remain in effect. Careful observers will recall that the original Senate vote last week had left these requirements intact and that body actually took a second vote to correct the oversight of preserving public notification when Olympia begins to move to raise taxes. That silver lining tarnishes in light of the Legislature’s practice of floating “ghost” legislation – also known as “title-only” bills – that defy transparency rules by offering nothing for the public to review.

The evolution of modern political systems has come to recognize that in free societies in order for the social contract to be consummated individuals will naturally require built-in defenses to guard against an oppressive government. In the United States Constitution the Bill of Rights embody those protections, and in Washington state we have codified our necessary stalemate between the government and the governed in our initiative process.

In order to register your strong opposition to SB 6130, the resulting avalanche of new taxes that will undoubtedly spring forth, and the requisite loss of liberty, please call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 to let your elected representatives in Olympia hear your voice.

If you have any interesting conversations with our legislators feel free to post details in the comments section to this post.

Saturday hearing scheduled for bill to shelve I-960

The Democrats in Olympia have been grinding their teeth to stumps since voters across the state passed Initiative 960 in 2007 with strong voter support. The measures imposition of a rule that any tax increases at the state level would require a two-thirds vote from the Legislature was tantamount to societal Armageddon in the opinion of the majority party. Bridges would crumble to dust and children would be forced to wander the streets when their schools were closed for lack of funding.

Continue Reading