Rasmussen email showing unpopularity of health reform sponsored by group trying to dismantle the law

The national group (with Texas roots) backing efforts to replace federal health care programs with interstate “health care compacts” is the newest sponsor of the “Daily Update” from polling firm Rasmussen Reports — with Monday’s email containing survey results critical of federal policies and ‘Obamacare.’

Advertisements for the Health Care Compact Alliance, whose leadership includes Houston construction mogul Leo Linbeck III, are plastered all over Monday’s email from Rasmussen, containing the results of two surveys, one showing that nearly 70 percent of respondents are “Still Angry At Government’s Current Policies” and one showing that 58 percent “Now Favor Health Care Repeal.”

Read the Texas Independent for previous reporting on the Health Care Compact Alliance.

The email also links to a commentary written by The Washington Examiner’s Michael Barone touting conservative policies in Texas and other states as the reason for rapid population growth in those areas, compared to states such as California.

In the column, titled “The Eyes of Texas Are Sparkling in the 2010 Census,” Barone writes:

“California for the first time in its history grew only microscopically faster than the nation as a whole (10 percent to 9.7 percent). Metro Los Angeles and San Francisco increasingly resemble Mexico City and Sao Paulo, with a large affluent upper class, a vast proletariat and a huge income gap in between.

Public policy plays an important role here — one that’s especially relevant as state governments seek to cut spending and reduce the power of the public employee unions that seek to raise spending and prevent accountability.

The lesson is that high taxes and strong public employee unions tend to stifle growth and produce a two-tier society like coastal California’s.”

On the contrary, a 2008 study by the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed income inequalities in California and Texas to be comparable. In terms of income ratios (calculated by dividing the average family income of high earners by that of middle- or low-income earners), California ranked 8th among the states when comparing the top quintile to the bottom quintile, 3rd when comparing the top quintile to the middle quintile, and 9th when comparing the top 5 percent to the bottom quintile. A ranking of 1st would signify the state had the most income inequality.

Texas, meanwhile, ranked 9th, 5th and 11th in those categories, respectively.

In the mid-2000s, the bottom quintile in California on average earned $18,312 (in Texas, $16,088); the middle quintile earned $50,981 (in Texas, $44,574); the top quintile earned $145,358 (in Texas $126,658); and the top 5 percent earned $243,386 (in Texas, $211,038).

In both California and Texas, income for high-earners increased at a faster rate than income for low- or middle-earners, both when looking at changes from the late 1980s to mid 2000s, and changes from the late 1990s to mid 2000s.