UH students appear to be almost evenly divided about the new health care law, according to a poll conducted by The Daily Cougar last week.
Roughly 40 percent of the 412 students surveyed said they approved of the Patient, Protection and Affordable Care Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law March 23. About 38 percent disapproved of the legislation, while 22 percent of respondents said they were unsure of it.
“I don’t totally disagree with the new health care system, but the minimum requirements in the standard benefit packages force everyone to have certain coverage,” music senior Josh Tan said. “The more problems Americans have in general, the more coverage the government will require us to pay for in our plans. A good majority of health issues in America are brought about by poor lifestyle choices.”
Students were also questioned about the performances of Obama and the U.S. Congress during his term. The results reveal that students are slightly more favorable of Obama’s work.
About 44 percent of those polled indicated approval for the president’s job performance, while approximately 37 percent indicated disapproval. Meanwhile, 30 percent of respondents said they were neutral on the issue.
“Too many Americans seemed shocked at his performance,” Tan said. “They should have known it wasn’t going to be as picture perfect as before we elected him.”
The Cougar’s poll on Congress’ performance reflected similar national surveys, as several students expressed contempt and insecurity about the nation’s future.
About 47 percent of respondents indicated their disapproval, compared to only 23 percent who said they approved of the legislative branch. The remaining 30 percent said they have no opinion.
With poll numbers indicating higher disapproval of Congress than Obama, there is clear division amongst those polled.
“Executive orders are not laws,” biotech senior Casey Markey said. “Trying to amend a bill through such is folly and can be counter-acted on a whim by a single man defeating the purpose of having a larger governing body create laws.”
The poll, which was conducted March 22-29, has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
The fact that Obama and Congressional leaders kept the bill’s content secret up until the last minute in order to prevent even the fastest speed reader from dissecting it, speaks volumes about what the bill is as well as demonstrate their contempt for the electorate. The use of the Senate budgetary “reconciliation” procedure to bypass the minority party’s objections is unprecedented for a bill of such scope. The manipulation of cost figures is dishonest as we all know the so called “fix-it bill” puts the spending back into this program that had to be taken out in order to claim the reform would reduce the deficit (lowering of the deficit is required to trigger reconciliation). I consider such new burdens on our treasury and the manipulation of the process by which they got this bill through Congress treason. I’m not a student whom will simply go drinking on the weekends and forget all about this as they would like to think – they’ve infuriated me! When it comes time for them to beg for our votes they’ll be put in their rightful place.