Most Americans Don't Believe Health Summit Will Produce Agreement

Seventy-seven percent of Americans hold little hope that Thursday's health care summit will produce bipartisan agreement on health care reform, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Feb. 23. The summit is being held at Blair House, across the street from the White House.

Eighty-seven percent of Republicans don't think an agreement will be reached and 77 percent of independents and 71 percent of Democrats share that view.

More Americans think President Obama will make the most sincere efforts to find solutions acceptable to both parties. Fifty-six percent believe that of Obama, compared with 40 percent who don't, while 54 percent don't believe Republicans will make a sincere effort and 41 percent say they will.Forty-nine percent of Americans say they oppose passing health care reform legislation similar to that proposed by Obama and congressional Democrats if agreement is not reached at the summit, while 42 percent would support doing so.

By a bigger margin -- 52 percent to 39 percent with 9 percent undecided -- they also oppose Senate Democrats using the so-called "reconciliation" budget procedure to push through legislation without having to muster a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority.

The reconciliation route basically recasts the health care legislation as a budget bill that requires only a simple majority to pass. But that tactic has its political risks, as the USA Today/Gallup poll shows, and even some Democrats are uncomfortable with the idea. It also might mean that some key elements of the bill may have to be discarded if the case is made that they don't have a budgetary impact.

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