Page 8A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Poll: Americans want health care fix
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Environmental Protection Agency Administra-
tor-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott
Pruitt is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednes-
day at his confirmation hearing before the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee.
In break with Trump,
EPA pick says climate
change isn’t hoax
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Donald Trump’s choice
to head the Environmental
Protection Agency said
Wednesday that climate
change is real, breaking with
both the president-elect and
his own past statements.
In response to questions
from Democrats during
his Senate confirmation
hearing,
Oklahoma
Attorney General Scott
Pruitt said he disagreed
with Trump’s earlier claims
that global warming is a
hoax created by the Chinese
to harm the economic
competitiveness of the
United States.
“I do not believe climate
change is a hoax,” Pruitt
said.
The 48-year-old Repub-
lican has previously cast
doubt on the extensive
body of scientific evidence
showing that the planet is
warming and man-made
carbon emissions are to
blame. In a 2016 opinion
article, Pruitt suggested
that the debate over global
warming “is far from
settled” and he claimed
that “scientists continue
to disagree about the
degree and extent of global
warming and its connection
to the actions of mankind.”
At the hearing before
the Senate Energy and
Public Works Committee,
Pruitt conceded that human
activity contributes “in
some manner” to climate
change. He continued,
however,
to
question
whether the burning of
fossil fuels is the primary
reason, and refused to say
whether sea levels are
rising.
Pruitt’s testimony came
shortly after NASA and
the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administra-
tion issued a joint statement
affirming that 2016 was
officially the hottest year
in recorded history. Studies
show the Greenland and
Antarctic ice sheets have
decreased in mass, while
the world’s oceans have
risen on average nearly 7
inches in the last century.
In his current post, Pruitt
joined a multistate lawsuit
opposing
the
Obama
administration’s plan to
limit
planet-warming
carbon emissions from
coal-fired power plants.
Pruitt also sued over the
EPA’s recent expansion
of water bodies regulated
under the Clean Water Act.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sylvia
Douglas twice voted for President
Barack Obama and last year cast a
ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton.
But when it comes to “Obamacare,”
she now sounds like President-elect
Donald Trump. This makes her chuckle
amid the serious choices she faces every
month between groceries, electricity
and paying a health insurance bill that
has jumped by nearly $400.
“It’s a universal thing, nobody likes
it,” Douglas, a licensed practical nurse
in Huntsville, Alabama, said of Obama’s
signature law. “They need to fix it with
whatever works, but not make more of a
mess like they have now.”
That Americans agree on much
of anything is remarkable after a
presidential race that ripped open the
nation’s economic, political and cultural
divisions. But on the brink of the Trump
presidency, a new poll finds ample
accord across those divisions on the
need to do something about health care
in the United States.
More than 4-in-10 Republicans,
Democrats and independents say health
care is a top issue facing the country,
The Associated Press-NORC Center for
Public Affairs Research poll showed.
That’s more than named any other issue
in the survey, conducted Dec. 14-19.
But there seems to be little agreement
on what to do about it.
Democrats say they want to fix prob-
lems in the current program — among
them, rising costs and dwindling compe-
tition — but not dismantle it. They warn
that the GOP is threatening the coverage
gained by 20 million people under the
2010 overhaul.
Republicans want to repeal Obama’s
signature law but fear the political
damage of stranding millions of Amer-
icans who secured coverage. Congress’
nonpartisan budget analyst lent weight
to that concern Tuesday, estimating that
a bill passed in 2016 to only repeal —
not replace — the law would result in
18 million more uninsured people and a
spike in premiums.
Trump says he has a plan, but so
far he’s given no details. He told The
Washington Post last weekend that his
approach would provide “insurance for
everybody.”
Congressional Republicans say the
revamp will offer “universal access” to
coverage, not quite the same thing
The desire to fix Obamacare stretches
across party lines, but some are skeptical
it can be done.
“It can’t be made to work,” said
James Gemind, a 55-year-old restaurant
worker from Orlando, Florida. “That’s
why both sides have been unanimous in
WE ARE
Poll: Health care fix a top priority
Americans see health care as the most important issue for
the government to tackle in 2017, according to an AP-NORC
Center poll.
Issues Americans would like
the government to address:
Health care
43% (2017)
31% (2016)
Top issues for Democrats:
Health care 40%
Unemployment/ 29
Jobs 24
Education 27
Environment/ 27
Climate change
Unemployment/Jobs 25
Immigration
26
29
Racism 20
Education
24
25
Top issues for Republicans:
Health care 47%
Environment/ 19
Climate change 18
19
Economy
20
Terrorism
18
34
Racism
14
8
Taxes
14
13
Immigration 40
Unemployment/Jobs 37
Terrorism 27
Government spending/Debt 24
Top issues for Independents:
Health care 43
Immigration 29
Unemployment/Jobs 26
Government 13
spending/Debt 12
Education 25
Economy 18
NOTE: Results based on a survey of 1,017 U.S. adults conducted Dec.
14-19, 2016, by NORC at the University of Chicago. Margin of error is ±3.7
percentage points. Respondents named up to five issues.
SOURCE: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
their agreement that it has to be repealed
or replaced. Part of it is funding; it just
does not exist to insure everybody.”
Health care aside, in the poll there
was more modest agreement on other
national priorities.
About a third of Republicans and a
quarter of Democrats put unemployment
among their top issues. About a fifth
named the economy in general as a top
priority regardless of party, according
to the poll. Most Americans said the
government should put a substantial
amount of effort toward addressing the
public’s priorities, but few expect much
will be accomplished in the next year,
the survey said.
Overall, domestic issues including
health care, education, the environment
and racism were cited by 86 percent of
Americans.
But Democrats were more likely to
mention the environment, racism and
poverty, while Republicans were more
likely to cite immigration, terrorism,
government spending and taxes.
Immigration was named by 40
percent of GOP respondents, compared
to 15 percent of Democrats. Trump
during the campaign connected immi-
gration to national security and vowed
to build a wall along the southern U.S.
border and make Mexico pay for it — an
idea Mexican leaders have not accepted.
Trump now says Mexico will pay for it
“eventually.”
In a turn-around from a year ago,
most Republicans now say the country
is on the right course, while Democrats
have become more pessimistic.
Life insurance is an essential
part of caring for your family.
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