GOP agenda coming into focus: Phase 1 - Cut off funding to Healthcare Reform

There are two things that you can say about the GOP without being wrong: They're predictable and consistent.  Realizing that the battle cry of "Repeal and Replace" will require more muscle than they can hope to muster, a new and more realistic campaign theme for the Mid-Term Elections is taking shape.  Choke off the funding to healthcare reform. 

Conservatives opposed to Healthcare Reform continue to proclaim that most Americans are opposed to the new reforms.  But on Thursday of last week (July 29, 2010), the Kaiser Family Foundation released a tracking poll indicating that support of the newly passed Healthcare Reform law is growing.  According to their findings: 

"The July Health Tracking Poll indicates overall public support for the health reform law is steady from June, while unfavorable views of the law have trended downward. Half the public (50%) now expresses a favorable view of the law, while 35 percent say they have an unfavorable opinion (down from 41% in June)." 

So, where does this Conservative belief that most Americans don't support the Healthcare Reform bill that was passed into law?  Well, it could be from this Fox News poll taken back in March, were 55% of respondents said they opposed the new reforms.  When comparing the numbers from the Fox News poll to the Kaiser Family Foundation poll, it appears there is a massive shift in support.  Keep in mind the terminology each uses to measure support. 

Fox News polls use definitive terms like "opposed" and "support", while Kaiser and other independent and non-partisan groups and foundations who poll on a regular basis use terms like "favorable" and "unfavorable."  The problem with polls that use definitive terminology and questions where you either have to answer yes or no, support or oppose, is it skews the poll and doesn't give an accurate picture of the complexity of the issues in question.  These types of polls tend to be used for propaganda, plain and simple. 

Some time ago, the GOP was pointing to a poll that said even most Democrats were opposed to the Healthcare Reforms passes in the House and Senate.  When you dug a little deeper into the numbers, the opposition from bluest of blue Democrats was that the reforms didn't go far enough.  Those were the ones that wanted a Single-Payer system rather than the one that is just starting to get implemented. 

This pathological obsession that Conservatives have with pushing misinformation is going to catch up to them.  The list of issues that Americans broadly support that the GOP has voted against is growing long: 

1.  Healthcare Reform
2.  Wall Street-Financial Reform
3.  Campaign Finance Reform  
4.  Small Business Loans 
5.  Tighter regulations on the Oil Industry (post BP) 
6.  Extending Unemployment Benefits 

Picture found at:  http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/02mM4W096v1cd/610x.jpg   There are likely more, but these are the most prominant or the latest.