Polls consistently show Republican talking points winning on major issues related to health care. For example, majorities believe that under the Democrat plan their health care costs are going to rise, they will have less freedom in choosing their doctor, they will be in danger of losing their current plan (which they like a lot), the deficit will explode even more than it already has, and the system will become even more complex. Additionally, the country is evenly split on whether President Obama is doing a good job on the issue.
Despite all of this, majorities still trust the President and the Democrats more than the Republicans to fix health care. Why is this?
The key number could be this: a majority of Americans believe the President is trying to be bi-partisan and the Republicans are not. While we should continue to fight the battle of policy as the Democrats plan is a huge step in the wrong direction, this is the number we need to turn around. Anyone following the plan knows that President Obama's idea of bipartisanship is no different than the one Bush had: write a plan and tell the other party they need to agree or accuse them of "stonewalling." Meanwhile, the Republicans in the Senate are working closely with Max Baucus and his truly bipartisan team developing a plan everyone can agree with.
People are beginning to catch onto Obama's arrogance. It is the reason his personal favorabilities are finally falling and have actually caught up with his steadily decreasing job approval scores. This is what Republicans need to make the public aware of: we realize we're not in the majority, it was the will of the people, but the White House only wants those of us who agree with them; they don't want our input. But we'll keep trying to get the American people the best plan possible.
Once people believe it, we'll have the moral upperhand, which is necessary to allow the GOP, typically the party of the Mind, to acquire the claim to the heart as well. And the heart is the key to health care.
See Polls Here: http://www.pollingreport.com/health.htm
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One other issue that the Republicans will need to convince people on and follow through with once they convince them is that they are trying to improve healthcare for EVERYONE. Lots of people (regardless of whether it is true) believe that the Republicans do not advocate helping everyone, and that they only want to protect the industry and the upper-classes care (Bull, for the most part). The other issue is that too many people have the image of the party of "no" still stuck in their head from the election and early days. And unfortunately, the Republicans have been too loud on their objections (for example, on Fox News I listened to them listing every fault you covered) but no one is seeing an alternative they find favorable being offered to them. Unfortunately, people if offered something versus nothing, they will choose the something even if it may actually be worse than what they had.
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