Rasmussen poll again distorts question to report misleading conclusions on health care reform

The CBO projects current Medicare spending to increase debt.  Public Domain

One of the most recent headlines of a Rasmusen poll reads "Voters Still Put Health Care Second to Deficit Cutting as Top Obama Priority."  In support of this conclusion Rasmussen cites data showing 42% who put deficit cutting as the first priority while just 22% list health care as the top priority. 

While there data may be accurate as will all polls the devil is in the details.  There are some potential distortions in the Rasmussen poll conclusions.  The poll itself forces the respondent to chose between health care reform and deficit reduction as if the two options are in conflict.  The actual question Rasmussen asks reads:

During a speech to Congress in February, the President named four priorities for his Administration--cutting the federal deficit in half in the next four years, health care reform, development of new sources of energy and ensuring that every child has access to a complete and competitive education. Which of these priorities do you think is most important?"

Thea answer choices are "cutting the federal deficit in half, health care reform, development of new sources of energy, or ensuring that every child has access to complete and competitive education."

No option exists for a respondent to say answer "cut the deficit through health care reform."  This is important becuase the most recent CBO report actually shows the health care reform bill reducing the deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years and over a trillion dollars after that.  On the other hand not passing reform will lead to greater deficits under the current system as can be seen in the CBO chart above.  So making respondents chose between deficit reduction and health care reform is in fact a false choice.  In fact Americans should be forced to chose between the current health care system and deficit reduction.  Countries like Canada (who have implemented some kind of health care reform) spend significantly less on health care as a percentage of their GDP with even better health care outcomes.

In addition the poll's conclusion makes it seem as if deficit reduction and health care reform were pitted up against each other.  In fact "health care reform" was also faced up against energy alternatives and education.  There is a very good chance that a large percentage of the alternative energy and education folks would chose "health care reform" if forced to chose between it and deficit reduction.  Actually when one adds up the percentages from all the answer choices other than deficit reduction you see that a majority of Americans (51%) actaully favor spending in some form over deficit reduction.  The Rasmussen headline should actually read "Majority of Americans favor spending programs over deficit reduction."