Speed Reads

perspective

Even the reviled 2008 bank bailout was more popular than the GOP health bill

Roper Center polling just put into perspective how unpopular the GOP-backed American Health Care Act actually is. The health-care bill, which Senate Republicans are hoping to vote on next week, is so unpopular that it almost makes the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the 2008 bank bailout program that even its director called "one of the most unpopular programs," look, well, popular:

MIT assistant political science professor Chris Warshaw noted that if the Senate follows the House in passing the bill, it "would be the most unpopular major law in recent decades."

A Politico/Morning Consult poll out Wednesday revealed that the bill has gotten even more unpopular since it passed the House in early May. Now just 35 percent of voters approve of the bill, while 49 percent disapprove of it.