Health-Care Anger Has Deeper Roots

From The Wall Street Journal:

Recent town-hall uproars weren't just about health care. They were also eruptions of concern that the government is taking on too much at once.

That suggests trouble for the president and his party, and fears of losses in next year's midterm election are likely to shape the Democrats' fall agenda.

At August's town-hall meetings, voters often started with complaints about health care, only to shift to frustrations about all the other things President Barack Obama and the Democrats have done or tried to do since January. The $787 billion economic-stimulus package, the government-led rescue of General Motors Corp. and climate-change legislation all came in for criticism.

"A lot of the anxiety we face here has less to do with health care and everything to do with the overall state of the economy and government," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat.

Although the election is still far off, political forecasters predict that Democrats could run into trouble in the 2010 midterm vote.

Mr. Weiner said the crowded legislative calendar and a bruising battle in June over a climate bill narrowly approved by the House is wearing down Democrats, particularly those in the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition.

"We had a lot of House members who cast a tough vote on energy, and thought they could catch their breath, only to have health care bear down on them," he said.

Anger about the government led to broad Democratic gains in 2006 and 2008, and now that Democrats are running the government, activism has only increased, he said.

"What we're seeing here is this larger debate about what the role of government is," said William McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducts The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. "The health-care debate is at that fault line.