The plan put forward by President Obama and his Congressional allies now has the lowest support it has ever had, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll. Now, I'm no great fan of polls - at their absolute best they provide a brief snapshot of where the people interviewed were when they were asked. At their worst they are used to advance candidates and causes through the use of false or misleading or loaded questions. Given that public opinion seems to move at lightspeed these days, the effective life of any poll seems very limited.

Polls may be helpful, however, in determining trends. Over time, support for a government-imposed "solution" on health care has dropped week after week after week. Given the really terrible provisions of the Obama/Reid/Pelosi bill, this is not terribly surprising, except that so much money and effort has gone in to trying to hide or deny those provisions. The shrillness of some of the denials - such as on the accusations regarding "death panels" - leads one to wonder how close to home the accusations are hitting. Call it what you will - Americans don't want a government bureaucrat involved in any way in discussions over their end-of-life care. They don't want them encouraging people to think it over. They don't want them in the room, don't want them reviewing or even reading about their decisions, don't want them making recommendations. There are probably more inappropriate suggestions for government involvement in our lives, but few that are as personally offensive.

What is a bit surprising is that the bad provisions of the Obama/Reid/Pelosi approach are receiving pretty wide understanding despite the unbelievable length and complexity of the legislation and efforts by most of the media to suppress information about it. Grassroots organizations like AFP deserve some of the credit for this, but the American people deserve more. As the Administration has piled up tremendous policy failure after tremendous policy failure, the public has become more and more skeptical about the failed utopian visions being suggested as wise public policy.

The health care bill now sits in the U.S. Senate and debate is scheduled to begin at the end of this month. By that time, it is likely that only 1/3 of Americans will support the Obama/Reid/Pelosi approach. A majority of House members have already fallen on their swords for this bill, and many will lose their careers because of it. Senators are understandably nervous, and while some can be bought, most others realize this is a career-defining vote. There are, undoubtedly, matters for which a Senator should be willing to sacrifice his or her career. The largest expansion of government control over the personal lives of Americans in 40 years is not one of those matters.

Please be sure and let your Senator know where you believe he or she should stand on this issue.