Posted on 01/21/2014 4:40:04 AM PST by Kaslin
What do young Americans want? Something different from what they've been getting from the president they voted for by such large margins.
Evidence comes in from various polls. Voters under 30, the millennial generation, produced numbers for Barack Obama 13 percentage points above the national average in 2008 and 9 points above in 2012.
But in recent polls, Obama approval among those under 30 has been higher than the national average by only 1 percentage point (Quinnipiac), 2 points (ABC/Washington Post) and 3 points (YouGov/Economist).
Those differences are statistically significant. And that's politically significant, since a higher percentage of millennials than of the general population are Hispanic or black.
The reasons for Millennials' decreased approval of Obama become clear from a Harvard Institute of Politics poll of 18- to 29-year-olds conducted in November.
That poll shows Obama's job approval dipping to 41 percent, down from 52 percent in April 2013 and the lowest rating in any HIOP survey.
One reason for the decline is Obamacare. Only 38 percent approved of Obamacare (39 percent approved of "the Affordable Care Act"). Only 29 percent of those who were uninsured said they would definitely or probably enroll in the health insurance exchanges.
Those results were registered five to nine weeks after the Oct. 1 healthcare.gov rollout. Tech-savvy millennials must have been astonished that government produced a website that didn't work.
They also perceived, accurately, that Obamacare health insurance would cost them a lot. The law passed by Democrats elected in large part with millennial votes was designed to have people under 30 subsidize the insurance premiums of those older, less healthy people over 50.
The old tend to have significant net worth, and the young -- with credit card and student loan debt -- tend to owe more than they own. Evidently, the Obama Democrats think it's progressive for the young to subsidize the working-age old.
That, after all, is the essence of Social Security, whose benefits some left-wing Democrats want to increase.
But millennials, whose penchant for volunteering is admirably high, are not being simply selfish. The Harvard survey also finds that they tend to believe, by a 44- to 17-percent margin, that the quality of their health care will get worse under Obamacare.
That's speculation, of course. But it suggests a healthy skepticism about the ability of a government, a government that lied about whether you could keep your insurance and your doctor, and couldn't construct a workable website, to produce a system that will improve service delivery.
That skepticism may owe something to young Americans' experience with student loans. Some 57 percent of the Harvard study millennials say that student loan debt is a major problem for young people. The responses don't vary much by political party identification.
Once again, the millennials have a point. The Obama administration did not initiate government student loans, but it continues to speak of them approvingly.
Yet it's obvious that the vast sums government-subsidized student loans have pumped into higher education over the last three decades have been largely captured by colleges and universities and transformed into administrative bloat.
Economics blogger Timothy Taylor notes that if you count prices in 1982-84 as 100, the average cost of all items in the consumer price index increased to 231 in September 2012. Energy, housing and transportation all increased about that much.
But college and tuition fees increased to 706 -- seven times the level when the government started pumping money into higher ed. Medical care increased to more than 400.
Some things that young people buy increased much less -- apparel (127), toys (53) and televisions (5, thanks to quality improvement).
But suddenly, in their early adult years, millennials find themselves socked with the inflated costs of higher education and, thanks to Obamacare, those of older people's health care.
In the meantime, in the Obama new normal economy, they aren't finding jobs -- and may be giving up on looking for them.
Labor force participation among those 55 and over has held steady since 2009. But labor force participation among those younger has been declining, as have earnings of college graduates.
The combination of higher education and health care costs and the new normal economy amount to what analyst Walter Russell Mead calls "the war on the young."
No wonder they're unhappy with the president who promised hope and change. Maybe they're in the market for an alternative.
Rule #1: Never trust a politician, especially one that promises you everything. He can’t pay for it, so you will.
Most of the young are gullible and miseducated by their NEA brain-washing in the government schools. This experience in the real world will be good for their maturation.
Obama’s war on the young?It seems that Obama’s at war on the elderly and those soon to be retirerees.
Where were these millenials when their parents were out breaking their backs to support them and pay all of the taxes this government demands at the point of a gun?
Wake up guys/gals he could care less what you thing of him. He feed you a huge bunch of lies and you really believed him, TWICE.
The first time shame on him, the second time shame on YOU.
Yes, the millennials are indeed PO’d with Obama over Obamacare’s effects on them... they didn’t expect to pay the bill on a program they were led to believe was “free.”
To make that statement clearly and strongly, in 2016 they’ll vote for Hillary in huge numbers with the expectation of her to deliver a single-payer system.
Hey dip$hits, you voted for it. Welcome to the real world, dumba$$es, where elections have consequences. In this extremely perverse case, two elections whose adverse impact on the country may span a generation. Good job.
(Sniffle) "Tolerant and compassionate" Obama knows that the most expensive h/care is delivered the last three years of life...so millenials will have to foot the bills (sob).
We now know, those signing up for Obamacare are the least desired demographic---the sick and the elderly Obama demands millenials subsidize.
CASE IN POINT Sen Harry Reid, 74, recently said that enrolling in O/Care is costly. But Harry says his coverage is "age-related.”
For sure, aging, decrepit Sen Harry will necessitate expensive medical care for diseases of old age including the ones he's being treated for now--- senility, Alzheimer's, dementia, arthritis, osteoarthritis, heart problems, heart attacks, stroke, kidney failure, prostate enlargement, osteoporosis (brittle bones)....etc.
Course, just in case ol' Harry hangs in there, Obamacare's I-PAB kicks in to ration medical care when stubborn old buzzards like Harry insist on getting more healthcare than millenials feel he is entitled to.
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Heck, Harry's dam lucky he represents arid Nevada. If he represented Alaska, the cheapest way to off him would be to park him on an ice floe w/ the rest of the older, sick Eskimos----floating out into the frigid Arctic Ocean wearing a sealskin coat, bearskin shorts, and a pair of mukluks.
If anyone takes the time to talk to these people, or their younger siblings or parents, they will find out something
And, according to the FAFSA reps, college grads come out of school with ‘just’ $20,000.000 average debt ( they try to soften it). The government is in charge of student loans, now. The department of education is in charge of student loans. A guy says that to a group of parents who, likes md numbed robots, say nothing there is no reaction
The dept of education oversees tuition rates?
A rep tells us they’ll ONLY have an AVERAGE of $20G debt. And no one blinks.
The government has found a willing victim, if you ask me. If the parents of a group of private school (art and financially savvy) kids cant be wise how can kids be wise consumers?
The 25 year olds tell the real story.
$20G debt (average) $20G for a car, labor force participation rate pitiful, 25% of any paycheck TWENTY FIVE PERCENT goes to Social Security they will never ever see (this government just took away such promised benefits to war veterans, no one and no contract is sacred
These kids have to pay for Internet, phone and they’re facing no health care with a steep fine or health care at the highest rate of all demographics
They don’t know any of this until they’re 24 or so
They are very ill advised, and vastly taken advantage of and resented by older people who don’t know what to do with their own guilt but hate them
Voting age should go back to pre Viet nam draft guilt age 21 with selective service voluntary at 18, and with it, the right to vote
You’ll see these stupid kids get out of ‘what kind of underwear do you wear, mr Clinton’ politics so fast it’ll curl your hair
They can’t have families and they are headed for very big financial troubl
Then there’s that growing $18 trillion debt they are responsible for
We are idiots who don’t care about the future. But we will MOT be the greatest generation at this rate. We’ll be lucky after dumping these kids in day care to this abuse, get a yearly visit on some urine seeped old folks institution
Forget it
Talk to these kids
If conservatives were smart they would continually harp on the fact that this IS what liberals do all the time to wrench them away from the dem base.
At least they voted. Conservatives had better things to do than bother to vote.
But Generation B(astard) couldn’t be happier with him.
O will just tell them to keep quiet and pay their fornication tax like their private parts depended on it...
“Talk to these kids”
These kids know everything, they won’t listen to anyone until they reach at least 30 years old, and some not till 40. And some not ever. They may be college educated but over half are still low information voters. I say let them stew in their own mess.
Don’t worry. He’ll legalize pot and it will all be OK.
No. If each one of our seniors would "adopt" a low-information voter to educate and enlighten, we could turn things around. It has always been the responsibility of the older generation to pass on their accumulated wisdom. Only way to make progress.
Kaslin,
No, the “Millennials Unhappy With Obama’s War on the Young” is totally wrong. The Millennials are unhappy with Obama because they just discovered that they are really racists and don’t like him because of his African father, not because of the reasons stated in the article.
And we have bh0’s word on it in the New Yorker article!!
we all know that bh0 will never lie to us and that we all have been able to keep the health insurance plan we had before obamacaresnothing was passed.
Does it ever dawn to that arrogant pos that people don’t like him because he is a demonrat and that his race has nothing to do with it? Of course not
Yeah, and you can blame certain Freepers for that.
A decline in support of obummer does not mean an increase in support for the opposition. It more likely means an increase in support for an even more liberal replacement.
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