September 04 ,2009

Don't take for your Labor Day break without digesting some of the most depressing news of the season:

This week the Obama Administration is releasing a memo showing strong public support of health care reform, but, as reported in Greg Sargent's blog, The Plumline, it is omitting vital information--namely that there is equally strong support for the vital public option that the White House may leave out of the final package.

More specifically, the White House memo refers to polls in August and September from CBS, CNN, and Kaiser, among others, that show roughly sixty percent of the public supports health care reform. But all three polls also show that roughly the same number of people support the public option which Obama may be junking.

As Sargent points out, the White House memo does cite one poll that didn’t find majority support for the public option--from MSNBC, But that poll generated considerable controversy because it was linked to the insurance industry and didn’t tell respondents that the public plan was a “choice.”

Even at this late date, the White House supposedly has not made up its mind about whether it will junk the public option or not--but the fact that the memo omits data from three polls that strongly support the option is highly suggestive.