What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending January 7, 2011

The Washington landscape for the next two years began to take shape this past week, with Republicans taking charge of the House and President Obama shaking up his White House staff to meet the challenge of his new, energized opposition.

The new House’s first significant move is expected next week when it is likely to vote to repeal the national health care plan passed by congressional Democrats last March. The Senate isn’t likely to go along but many Senators will be positioning themselves with 2012 in mind. 

Most voters continue to favor repeal of the health care plan as they have since it first became law. But with repeal unlikely in the immediate short-term, some opponents have suggested that House Republicans simply refuse to fund the portions of the law they don’t like. A plurality of voters think Congress  should repeal a law it doesn’t like rather than just defund it, but only 29% of voters think Congress should be required to fully fund a law if it is unable to repeal the legislation. 

Barely two weeks separated the close of one session of Congress and the opening of another, but voters, very sour on the previous Congress, are already expressing doubts about the new set of legislators. 

The Tea Party, for one, is lighting a fire under congressional Republicans to repeal the health care plan and cut the size of government, but voters still expect government spending, taxes and the deficit to go up over the next two years.