Steele concedes people “like the idea of” the public option

Posted Oct 20, 2009, 2:45 PM PT by Jed Lewison • First broadcast: Oct 20, 2009

GOP chairman Michael Steele, interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s The Situation Room:

Transcript:

BLITZER: The Washington Post/ABC News Poll that’s just come out on the so-called public option, a government-run health insurance company to compete with the private insurance companies, according to this poll, 57% of the American people support the idea of a public option, 40% opposed. I know you are adamantly in that 40%, but it looks like a significant majority feels differently.

STEELE: Well, you know, I appreciate that, I don’t necessarily trust that number. If you look at the question, and what they’re asking, it kind of lends itself to a "yes" for the public option. So, I’ll take that at face value, Wolf, and give the Washington Post its due on that point. What I then look at is the subsequent tabs and the subsequent questions in which a majority of the people - 60 some percent - are saying they don’t want a government-controlled system, they are upset about the taxes, they have real concern about the spending. So when you juxtapose those two together, I think you come to a different place on where the folks are on the public option. Yeah, we like the idea of it, but the reality of it is going to be something very different.