Polls

Only 24% of Voters Support GOP Health Care Plan

| Tom Jensen

PPP’s newest national poll finds that there is very little support for the American Health Care Act. Only 24% of voters support it, to 49% who are opposed. Even among Republican voters only 37% are in favor of the proposal to 22% who are against it, and 41% who aren’t sure one way or another. Democrats (15/71) and independents (22/49) are more unified in their opposition to the bill than Republicans are in favor of it.

The Affordable Care Act continues to post some of the best numbers it’s ever seen, with 47% of voters in favor of it to 39% who are opposed. When voters are asked whether they’d have rather have the Affordable Care Act or the American Health Care Act in place, the Affordable Care Act wins by 20 points at 49/29. Just 32% of voters think the best path forward with the Affordable Care Act is to repeal it and start over, while 63% think it would be better to keep what works in it and fix what doesn’t.

When Jason Chaffetz said people might have to choose between an iPhone and having health insurance, he was actually speaking for a majority of the party base. 57% of Trump voters think that’s a choice people should have to make, to only 29% who think it’s not. But virtually no one would actually pick an iPhone over health care if that was the pick they were presented with- only 5% would go with the phone, to 85% who would choose health care.

63% of voters now support an independent investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 Presidential election, to only 28% opposed to one. On a related note, 60% of voters think Russia wanted Donald Trump to win last year’s election to only 16% who think it wanted Clinton to win. Among Trump voters though, 30% think Russia wanted Clinton to win the election to 28% who grant it wanted Trump to be victorious.

In the wake of revelations about Jeff Sessions’ contacts with the Russians during the campaign, a plurality of voters want his time as Attorney General to come to an end. Just 38% think he should continue to serve in the position, while 44% think he should not. Sessions is unpopular overall, with only 30% of voters rating him favorably to 43% who have a negative opinion of him.

Overall voters continue to have a very dim view of Russia (13/65 favorability rating) and Vladimir Putin (10/72 favorability.) Even among Trump voters those figures come in at 19/53 and 15/58 respectively.

Only 27% of voters believe Trump’s accusations that Barack Obama tapped his phone during the election last year, to 56% who don’t believe them. Trump’s voters are going along with him on it though- 57% of them think Trump was tapped to only 17% who don’t believe he was.

With Trump and Obama making conflicting claims about the wire tapping we asked voters who they trust more, and Obama wins out on that question 54-39. And in general voters would rather still have Obama than Trump as President, 52/43.

Other notes from our national poll:

-Voters continue to have a lot of the same basic transparency concerns they’ve had about Trump all along. 61% think he needs to release his tax returns, to only 32% who don’t think it’s necessary for him to. In fact, 61% of voters say they’d support a law requiring that a candidate for President release 5 years of tax returns in order to appear on the ballot, to only 30% opposed to doing that. Additionally 63% of voters think Trump needs to fully divest himself from his business interests, to just 26% who don’t think it’s necessary for him to do that.

-There continues to be strong resistance to the wall with Mexico if American taxpayers end up having to fund it. Just 37% of voters support the wall if we pay for it, to 55% who are opposed to that. Even more unpopular is the concept floated last week of having the wall paid for by cuts to funding for the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, and Federal Emergency Management Agency- just 16% of voters support making reductions in those places to build the wall, with 69% against.

-Overall 27% of voters think it was appropriate for Mike Pence to use his private email for state business while Governor of Indiana, to 51% who think it was inappropriate. But in a sign that their concerns about Hillary Clinton’s email practices might not have been terribly sincere, 49% of Trump voters think it was fine for Pence to use his private email with only 22% saying they think it was inappropriate.

-Reports have conflicted on whether she’s really interested but for what it’s worth, Oprah Winfrey has a 49/33 favorability rating nationally and would lead Donald Trump 47-40 in a hypothetical 2020 Presidential contest.

-Trump continues to lose out in his fights with the media. Voters say that the New York Times has more credibility than him, 53/35, and that CNN has more credibility than him, 53/37.

-Overall Trump has a 43% approval rating, with 50% of voters disapproving of him. The 43% approval matches the lowest we’ve found for him since he took office, but his disapproval is not as bad as the 53% we found for him right on the heels of the initial controversy over the travel ban. 41% of voters see Trump favorably, with 52% having a negative view of him. Voters are closely split when it comes to the idea of impeaching Trump, with 44% in support of impeaching him and 45% opposed. 

-Congress as a body continues to be very unpopular (18/64 approval) with Paul Ryan (34/48 approval) and Mitch McConnell (20/50 approval) unpopular individually as well. Democrats lead the generic House ballot 46-41.

-And finally we polled on two of the important food debates that have gripped America over the last month. By a 47/32 spread, Americans approve of having pineapple as a pizza topping. But by a 27/56 spread, they disapprove of using ketchup as a condiment on steak. This is a rare issue where even Donald Trump’s own voters abandon him on something- only 34% of them approve of ketchup on steak to 52% who disapprove.

Full results here

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