(1)
Us:

76 percent of Americans believe it’s either “extremely important” or “quite important” to “give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance.”

Them:
By all appearances, 76% of Congressmen and Senators believe it’s either “extremely important” or “most important” to protect health insurance companies—both their profits and their charming industry practices (like rescission, for example).

(2)
Us, in a different poll:

When asked: “Would you favor or oppose the government’s offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan like Medicare that would compete with private health insurance plans?”

Overall: 72% favor, 20% oppose
Republicans: 50% favor, 39% oppose
Democrats: 87% favor, 9% oppose
Independents: 73% favor, 22% oppose

Even Republicans favor a public plan option by a wide margin. So Republican lawmakers claim to oppose it on what grounds, ideological purity? And Democrats like Ben Nelson?