Public Opinion

It's always fascinating to see how far public opinion deviates from the actual policies our politicians support. For example, support for universal health care:

"By almost a 2-1 margin in this poll, 62% to 32%, Americans said they preferred a universal system that would provide coverage to everyone under a government program, as opposed to the current employer-based system.

The Chicago Council for Foreign Relations recently released a report on public opinion on global issues. A quick glance through the report just looking at the graphs alone is interesting. For example:

- 79% of the public wants to expand spending on health care
- 69% of the public wants to expand spending on education
- 65% of the public wants to expand spending on social security
- 29% want to increase defense spending
- 13% want to increase military aid to other nations
- 72% believe "the US should remove its military presence from Iraq if a majority of people there want it to."
- 59% believe "the US should remove its military presence from the Middle East if a majority of people there want it to."
- 73% believe the most important lesson of 9/11 is "to work more closely with other countries to fight terrorism." 23% believe it is that "The U.S. needs to act on its own more to fight terrorism."
- 82% support "trial of suspected terrorists in International Criminal Court."