The other part of that Kaiser poll I wrote about earlier also covers opinion on the HHS’s decision to include certain kinds of contraception as a part of a broader, mandated, minimum for health insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act. Now other polls already show a majority support such a decision, but Kaiser found much the same thing:
So a majority of those polled agree with the mandate. I can imagine critics deriding, among other things, the idea that the cost of such coverage wouldn’t ultimately be born by the people that support it anyway. Of course, the point isn’t really that it should be “free” but that it should be available without any out-of-pocket expense. There is a difference.
They also found little difference between gender:
But the next slide is the one that I’m most interested in:
The only demographic category whose support doesn’t reach or exceed 50 percent are…drumroll please…Republicans. What I find fascinating is that even for the GOP, this issue still garners 42 percent support. 42 percent of Republicans support the mandate! I think this, more than anything – Ie, separate from the validity of the opposition’s argument itself – speaks to the narrowness of a political stand that GOP leaders are taking.
It’s not that people don’t see the both sides of the issue legitimately – they do:
But it might help explain this:
The Reps have no more issues to take againts Pres. Obama. they’ve gone as far as attacking public education ( federal and state defunding of public schools ) and have made the most ridiculous statements , so far ( Santorum and Romney )……” urging the youth to go to college, trade, and vocational schools is just an evil plan to indoctrinate them to liberalism.” It is also ” snobbish “.
It does seem odd to take so many unpopular positions, then take the least popular variant of those positions. Republican political strategists must be ripping their hair out.