WSJ: Growing Government Role Fuels Anger...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125176363081674373.html

By JANET ADAMY and JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON -- 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.

"I have seen a level of dissatisfaction and even anger that I haven't
experienced in the years that I've been a member of Congress," Sen.
John McCain, an Arizona Republican, told an audience at a health-care
meeting in Kansas City on Monday.

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

"What we're seeing now, both in terms of numbers and the feel out
there, this is how big waves feel early on," said Charlie Cook, editor
of the Cook Political Report.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed any talk of political
doom hanging over the president and his party.

"It would be like me predicting who's going to win the World Series,
not in a few months but in a year and a few months," he said Monday,
adding that he will leave "extremely smart prognosticators" to "their
stately craft."
[Midterm Backslide chart]

August, typically a sleepy month, dealt Democrats a tough hand this year.

Snafus in the federal "cash for clunkers" program -- which gave people
rebates to trade in gas-guzzling cars for more fuel-efficient new
vehicles -- highlighted how disorganization can hamper government
plans. It was the bloodiest month for U.S. troops so far in the war in
Afghanistan. Attorney General Eric Holder poked a potential hornets'
nest by appointing a prosecutor to investigate Central Intelligence
Agency interrogators. And White House budget forecasters said they now
project $9 trillion of additional federal debt over the next decade,
adding $2 trillion to an earlier estimate.

Last year's election gave Democrats a mandate for big changes that
they feel still applies. They won seats by arguing that Republicans
had failed to act to keep the housing market and financial system from
crumbling.

Mr. Obama also inherited a large budget deficit and expanded it
further with economic-stimulus spending.

Many town-hall attendees cite the deficit as a reason for holding off
on health care, even though Mr. Obama and other Democrats say they
won't pass a plan that adds to the national debt.

Current proposals would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years, mostly
to expand coverage to the nation's uninsured. All proposals aim to be
deficit-neutral, offsetting new spending with cuts and some new taxes.

Anger over financial bailouts, including the Troubled Asset Relief
Program begun under the administration of former President George W.
Bush, has been especially strong. At a meeting in Wheeling, W.Va.,
Democratic Rep. Alan B. Mollohan said a health-care bill was needed to
help "folks in terrible situations." A member of the audience yelled
out: "Use TARP funds!"

In South Sioux City, Neb., last week, Van Phillips took the microphone
to ask Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson how America can pay for a health
overhaul with all the other programs going on.

At town-hall meetings in August, such as this one in Reston, Va.,
voters often started with complaints about health care, only to shift
to broader frustrations about actions by Democrats.

"We've got a pretty good chunk out there already in the stimulus. We
just came back with the cash for clunkers," said Mr. Phillips, a
retired superintendent of schools. "I guess I'm concerned -- how do we
make all of this flow?"

Democrats concede they are fighting the perception that government is
overstretched, though they say the economic stresses actually make a
health-care overhaul more important because Democratic plans would
help people who lose employer-provided health insurance.

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.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), chairman of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee, said, "I've warned our colleagues
from day one back in January, this is going to be a very challenging
cycle. You just have to look historically....We're pleased people are
being shaken out of their complacency."

Other analysts think any forecast this early is overblown.

"A year is an eternity, maybe two eternities, in politics," said
Nathan L. Gonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political
Report.

But Mr. Gonzales agreed that skepticism about too much action in
Washington can drive voters. 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.
—Louise Radnofsky and Neil King Jr. contributed to this article.