TAKE THAT, GROVER NORQUIST. Good news from a New York Times/CBS News poll this morning. Sixty percent of Americans — including 62 percent of independents — would be willing to pay more taxes to guarantee universal health coverage. But according to the poll, only 36 percent of Americans have confidence in Hillary Clinton�s ability to deliver health care reform this time around, and about half are unsure about John Edwards� idea to require employers to either pay for health insurance or pay into a general fund to provide government coverage. And get this: A full 80 percent think health care is a more important priority than continuing the Bush tax cuts!
Edwards� statement that he would repeal the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $200,000 a year to pay for universal health coverage was greeted as apostasy, but now here�s some hard evidence that the era of �tax� as a dirty word might be drawing to a close. Sure, Americans like to imagine that they�ll be rich enough someday to benefit from these regressive tax policies. But after six years of Bush, the country has a clear and weary-eyed view of what the de-funding of government looks like. And they don�t like what they see.
—Dana Goldstein
