HUFFPOLLSTER: Most Of The Public Doesn't Want To See Obamacare Totally Scrapped

A number of the ACA’s provisions are more popular than the health care law as a whole. Donald Trump’s voters wish he was still committing to have Hillary Clinton prosecuted. And reactions to Jill Stein’s recount request are decidedly mixed. This is HuffPollster for Friday, December 2, 2016.

JUST A QUARTER OF AMERICANS WANT FULL OBAMACARE REPEAL - Jonathan Cohn: “The first major post-election survey on Obamacare suggests that repeal is a lot less popular than President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans may imagine. The poll also finds that even many Americans who support repeal think Republicans should decide how they’d replace Obamacare before passing a law that would end the program. The survey comes from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation , which has been tracking public attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act since 2010, when President Barack Obama signed it into law. Like earlier surveys, this one finds the public sharply divided on the law, with sentiments tracking partisan alignments closely. Democrats tend to support it, Republicans do not. But in the Kaiser poll, support for full repeal is a distinctly minority position. Only 26 percent of Americans favor it, according to the survey, with another 17 percent preferring that Trump and Republicans merely ‘scale back what the law does.’ Support for full repeal actually declines further when people learn that it could mean allowing insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or that 20 million people could lose their insurance altogether. And even among those who want repeal, 42 percent think Republicans should hold off on passing it until they’ve agreed upon a replacement.” [HuffPost ]

TRUMP VOTERS ARE DISAPPOINTED HE WON’T GO AFTER CLINTON - HuffPollster: “Americans who voted for Donald Trump think his transition team is making a bad decision by backing away from his threat to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account and server while she was secretary of state, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov survey ….Sixty-eight percent of those who voted for Trump said they’d favor asking a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton. Among that group, 42 percent said that it’s ‘very important’ that Trump launch such an investigation, with a total 79 percent saying it’s at least ‘somewhat important’ to them. When told that Trump has seemingly decided not to have Clinton investigated, those who voted for him said by a 7-point margin 36 percent to 29 percent — that he’s made a bad decision. Perhaps caught between a desire to punish the Democratic nominee and an unwillingness to criticize Trump, a substantial portion, 36 percent, said they’re not sure.” [HuffPost ]

More of the latest HuffPost/YouGov polls:

Americans want to ban flag-burning, but disagree with harsh punishments - HuffPollster: “Americans think flag burning should be illegal, but few agree with President-elect Donald Trump’s suggestions of stripping citizenship from those who do so, a new HuffPost/YouGov survey finds....Although a majority of Americans recognize that flag burning is currently legal, according to the HuffPost/YouGov results, just 16 percent think that flag burning is an appropriate way to protest. By an 11-point margin, 48 percent to 37 percent, they favor passing a constitutional amendment that would make it illegal to burn the American flag. But by a 6-point margin, 44 percent to 38 percent, those polled say that they’d oppose punishing people who burn the American flag by sentencing them to a year in jail.And a broad majority of Americans dislike the idea of stripping U.S. citizenship from those who burn the flag. Just 24 percent favor such an idea, while 58 percent oppose it.” [HuffPost ]

Trump voters have rosier financial outlooks - HuffPollster: “Most Americans say their financial standing has changed little in the past year, according to a new HuffPost/YouGov poll. A near majority of Americans say they expect few changes in the coming year, either although those who voted for Donald Trump are decidedly more optimistic than those who supported Hillary Clinton....Twenty-one percent of Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton say that they’re better off financially than they were a year ago, while just 9 percent of those who voted for Donald Trump say the same. Looking ahead, however, 36 percent of Trump voters, compared to just 18 percent of Clinton voters, expect to be better off financially a year from now.” [HuffPost ]

CLINTON AND TRUMP VOTERS HAVE DIFFERING RECOUNT EXPECTATIONS  - Kathy Frankovic: “Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s recount request gets public support in the latest YouGov Poll —although there are differing points of view of their value, depending on which side you are on.   Some Democrats and Clinton voters hold on to the hope that the recounts will show that Democrat Hillary Clinton really carried the states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, three close states that gave Republican Donald Trump a majority in the Electoral College.  Republicans and Trump voters overwhelmingly disagree.  But Republicans do believe that the recounts can help convince people that Trump really did win the election; Democrats are more likely to disagree with that. Both groups are less sure the recounts can demonstrate that foreign governments didn’t tamper directly with the election, although Trump supporters are more hopeful that they will.” [YouGov ]

AMERICANS DIVIDED OVER ORGANIC FOODS, GMOS - Cary Funk and Brian Kennedy: “There has been a pronounced shift in Americans’ eating habits over the past 20 years with far-reaching implications for how food is created, prepared and consumed. Moreover, the way Americans eat has become a source of potential social, economic and political friction as people follow personal preferences reflecting their beliefs about how foods connect with their health and ailments, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center….The new survey finds that 55% of Americans believe organically grown produce is healthier than conventionally grown varieties, while 41% say there is no difference between organic and conventionally grown produce and 3% say that conventionally grown produce is better….At the same time, there is a sizable minority – 39% – of Americans who consider genetically modified foods worse for a person’s health than other foods. This compares with 48% of adults who say GM foods are no different from non-GM foods and 10% who say GM foods are better for health.” [Pew ]

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FRIDAY’S ‘OUTLIERS’ - Links to the best of news at the intersection of polling, politics and political data:

-About 20 percent of women who supported Hillary Clinton say their husbands  did not vote. [PRRI ]

-Clifford Young looks at American sentiments on trade. [Ipsos ]

-Nate Silver argues pollsters didn’t talk to enough white voters without college degrees. [538 ]   

-Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley think the election’s “game of musical chairs” stopped at the wrong time for Hillary Clinton. [Sabato’s Crystal Ball ]

-David Roberts reviews factors that could have impacted the 2016 election outcome. [Vox ]  

-Stephen Wolf (D) charts the lack of ticket-splitting in the election. [Daily Kos ]

-New data analysis suggests that exit polls overestimated Donald Trump’s support among Latino voters in Texas. [WashPost ]

-Nancy Pelosi won the re-election to her House leadership position with only 68 percent of the vote, the smallest margin in decades. [538 ]

Grace Sparks and Nicholas Bayer contributed to this piece.