58 Percent of Americans Want Obamacare Repealed

Most voters continue to favor repeal of the national healthcare bill, but nearly half see repeal as unlikely. A plurality believes repeal would be good for the economy.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 58 percent of voters favor repeal, including 48 percent who strongly favor it. Thirty-seven percent are opposed to repeal, with 28 percent who are strongly opposed.

Support for repeal is up two points from a week ago but is consistent with findings recorded over the past several months. Weekly tracking surveys have found support for repeal has ranged from 52 percent to 63 percent.

Forty-four percent believe repeal of the healthcare bill would be good for the economy. Twenty-eight percent say repeal would hurt the economy. These views have not changed since earlier this month.

But just 39 percent think it even somewhat likely that the new law will actually be repealed. Forty-eight percent of voters see repeal as unlikely. Those figures include nine percent who say repeal is very likely and 10 percent say it’s not at all likely.

Democrats continue to be much more supportive of the healthcare bill and much more confident of its benefits than are Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party..

Thirty-four percent of voters say the healthcare plan is good for the country, but most voters (53 percent) see its impact as bad. Fifty percent or more of voters have said the plan is bad for the country since late March.

While a solid plurality of voters believe repeal would be good for the economy, just 27 percent say repeal would create new jobs. Thirty-six percent disagree and say new jobs would not be created and a sizable 37 percent are not sure.

Earlier this month, 45 percent said repeal was unlikely, but in April 51 percent felt that way.

Forty-nine percent of mainstream voters think repeal is likely, but 72 percent of the political class feel otherwise and believe repeal is unlikely to take place.

The political class also champions the healthcare bill much more strongly than mainstream voters. Fifty-four percent of mainstream voters, for example, think repeal of the bill would be good for the economy. However, 72 percent of the political class say repeal would have a bad impact on the economy.

But then 70 percent of mainstream voters favor repeal of the healthcare bill. Ninety-five percent of the political class are opposed.

Sixty-eight percent of all voters nationwide believe the nation’s political class doesn’t “care what most Americans think” anyway.

Voters strongly believe that more competition and less regulation would be better for the economy and job creation.

Looking back, voters remain unhappy with the government bailouts of the financial industry and troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on July 24-25, 2010, by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.