The American people do not support the Senate health care reform bill.  

Republicans have been pounding this assertion since last summer, but they aren’t the only ones. Frighteningly, the media are playing the game as well.  Fox’s Megyn Kelly continues to press Democratic congressmen on the public’s swelling opposition to the bill, and over at NBC, Chuck Todd has filed report after report about the growing unpopularity of the reform.

The problem with these reports isn’t that they are false. Polls show most Americans are opposed to the bill being considered by Congress. The problem is they give no explanation as to why Americans oppose the bill. The insinuation in most cases is that Americans have rejected the reform effort because it goes too far, or as Todd puts it: The president is losing the support from the “middle.”  The media assumes every person opposed to the current bill is terrified of the growing specter of socialized medicine. To be clear, many people are scared of exactly that. However, there is a contingent of people who are opposed to the bill because it doesn’t go far enough. The media have ignored these people — they prefer to focus on the guys in their “Don’t Tread on Me” T-shirts who burn congressmen in effigy.

How many of the people opposed to the bill are actually to the “left” of it? A grossly underreported CBS poll from January sheds some light on this issue. The poll found that while most Americans disapprove of the Democrats’ handling of health care, most of them think the bill does not go far enough.  They believe it doesn’t do enough to expand insurance coverage or to rein in costs, and it doesn’t go far enough in regulating the insurance companies. Additionally, the same poll found that even more Americans disapprove of the way Republicans are handling reform. Couple this with the fact that a vast majority of Americans support an affordable public insurance option, and one might conclude that many of those in opposition aren’t from Todd’s “middle.” In fact, it indicates that Americans are clamoring for more progressive action.

So what’s the big problem?  The Chuck Todd/Megyn Kelly narrative has steered the course of the legislative process. The Democrats in Congress have drank the “we’re losing the moderates” Kool-Aid.  Instead of making the bill stronger, they have watered it down. All the while, President Obama continues his quixotic quest for a  “bipartisan” solution.

The Democrats should do whatever it takes to pass the boldest bill possible. It may actually please a majority of Americans.  Just don’t tell the media — they still think we are a center-right nation.