Yikes: Quinnipiac poll says 51-38 majority of Americans sees single-payer as a good idea

Ignore this at your peril. I realize it's Quinnipiac and their results tend to lean left, but if this is even in the same ballpark as accurate, good Lord:

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The breakdown is really eye-opening, and not in a good way. Independents track with the population as a whole exactly. There's not much difference between men and women, with men who are for it even topping women by a few points. It's no surprise that Democrats are overwhelmingly in favor, but for crying out loud: 29 percent of Republicans think it's a good idea? I guess now we know who keeps electing Collins, Murkowski and McCain. I want to find some reason for hope in the wording of the question, but I really don't. It's pretty clear what they're talking about. You can theorize that some people jump at "removing the current health care system" and don't finish up by reading what they're talking about replacing it with, but I doubt very many people are that careless. Besides, if these are phone polls, you have to listen to the whole question before you give your answer. Maybe some people only listen to the first part and then, oh look . . . a squirrel! Or maybe people are so tired of all the debates over health care that the just want to give it up already. They always hear about how the rest of the world has some variation of socialized medicine, so how bad can it be? The parents of Charlie Gard would beg to differ, but does the average poll respondent even know who that is? I will say this: Add to the question how much you'd have to raise taxes to do this, and you would certainly get a very different reaction - probably not from Democrats but for sure from Republicans and probably from independents too. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people don't really put it all together that well.

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Medicare cover me? Hey! Why not? Surely there's room for a few more. I'd venture a guess that the majority of Americans have no idea how badly in the soup Medicare already is with unfunded obligations for the coming years. The media almost never talk about it, and if politicians say anything at all it's usually to insist that if only "the 1 percent" would "pay their fair share" then all of this would be taken care of. If you look into it at all, you'll instantly see what rubbish that is. But how many people do? If you want to understand how we got to this point as a nation - approaching $20 trillion in debt and $100 trillion in entitlement obligations, without the foggiest idea how to pay for any of it - this poll provides a pretty good snapshot. Hey, would you like the government to pay for your health care? Sure! Matter settled. No need to give a moment's thought to who pays the bill. Even 29 percent of Republicans go along, and almost no one ever hears a word about the other side of the equation. There was a time when Republicans won this argument easily because people were mindful about the cost of "free" stuff. I miss those Republicans. I miss that America. It was really great.

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