So what do Wisconsin voters think about the health care
debate?
Let's find out in our "Closer Look" at results from the latest
Marquette Law School Poll.
And joining us now is the director of the poll, Charles
Franklin.
Thanks for being here.
- Thanks for having me.
- You asked what people wanted Congress to do about Obamacare
or the Affordable Care Act and most don't want it to go away.
- That's right.
If you put it together about 60% would either keep it or keep it
and improve it, and about 36% would either repeal it or repeal
and replace it.
We've seen similar kinds of numbers in the past, though
support for Obamacare in general has moved up a little bit
since the new administration took office.
- And is that--is it possible to know if that's because
there's actually a realistic threat to it now?
- I think the threat is one thing.
We've seen the Affordable Care Act was more unfavorable than
favorable throughout its life until this new year.
What's different?
There's now a realistic threat of repeal.
The other is, as we saw in our data, people are a bit fearful
what a replacement would look like.
They're concerned that it would cover fewer people and that it
would cost more, the opposite of what President Trump talked
about on the campaign of covering more people for much
less money.
- And we've got some numbers on that.
The Congressional Budget Office put out numbers that said it
will lead to 24 million people losing insurance over time.
But less than half of the voters believe that.
Is that lack of trust in government or is that a quiz on
whether the people are paying attention?
- I think it's a little bit of both.
More of a quiz at this point because the bill is uncertain.
It's being changed constantly.
We don't even know what's going to happen with the vote.
Or at least I don't at this point.
So, I think it reflects that uncertainty but it also is worth
looking that close to 2 to 1 margin who think something worse
will happen compared to think something better will happen.
That's a real imbalance.
It reflects the CBO numbers.
It also reflects the political debate around the bill.
- And we do have the first approval ratings for the Trump
era in Wisconsin.
How's he doing?
- 41% approval, 47 disapprove.
A little higher than national average, 11% haven't made up
their minds.
As a result, his 41 approval is maybe a point below the national
average right now, but disapproval numbers are about 3
or 4 points below the national average.
That's because we are not quite as opinionated about him yet as
the national polling looks.
- But when we look at the party breakdown, it's pretty clear.
- Oh, the party breakdown is night and day.
That is like the middle of the Obama administration.
High 80% of Republicans approve of Trump, high 80% of Democrats
disapprove.
Independents are a bit split.
A little bit more disapproval than approval.
Normally a honeymoon takes place and the opposition party at
least holds off on being very negative.
That has not happened now.
The other thing is, Republicans were a bit split in the state in
the fall about how they felt about Trump.
They are now completely unified behind him at nearly 90%.
- Maybe the honeymoon's within the Republican Party which he
had to earn.
- I think the party has come home to him
and rallied around him.
We'll see.
For President Obama, he stayed in the low to mid 80s almost
always with Democrats.
We'll see if that happens with Trump.
- And moving to the state, Governor Walker continues his
slow climb towards almost a positive rating.
- We see his best rating in the last two years, 45 to 48, 45
approve, 48 disapprove.
So, he's still a little underwater by a three point
margin, but that's a three point uptick in his approval, three
points down on his disapproval.
We've watched him of course for his entire term, but especially
since the beginning of 2015 he's been substantially more
disapproval than approval.
This is closing the gap.
He closed some over last summer but now he's closed a little bit
more.
This comes in the wake of a generally positive budget that
he submitted.
- And talking about that budget, one of the big issues is
always going to be public education and funding for it.
He's proposed a big increase.
And it looks like people support that idea.
- People overwhelming do by 80%, support more funding for
K-12 education.
This is the mirror image of two years ago in that budget where
initially cuts to K-12 were proposed, which were enormously
unpopular with the public and also ultimately with
legislators.
- And so it makes sense that at the same time people want more
funding, that shows they do like the local schools.
- Generally we've tracked this all along and a substantial
majority are either very satisfied or satisfied
with their public schools.
It's a very modest minority who are negative about those
schools, though it is fair to recognize more people are in
just the satisfied category by about 2 to 1,
than are in the very satisfied category.
So, it's not like people are saying their schools are
perfect, but on balance, they're quite positive to it, and except
in the Milwaukee area, where it's the biggest negativity,
most of the state is quite positive
to their local public schools.
- And very quickly, seems to be a trend that has been relatively
consistent over time.
- That's right.
We have not seen a shift in the balance of that to any
appreciable degree in the four years, five years that we have
been doing the Marquette poll.
- All right.
Charles Franklin, thanks for your time.
- Thank you.