and lastly, government programs. president obama took a shot at republicans when he said this about entitlements. the commitments we make to each other through medicare and medicaid and social security, these things do not zap our initiative. they strengthen us. they do not make us a nation of takers. they free us to take the risks that make this country great. i ll take that poll. the public s predominantly in favor here. when we polled on medicare, 54% said it only needed minor modifications if anything. joining us david corn and michael scherer. gentlemen, thank you. i didn t know this until you put it all together. i have a sense that on the right if you re a moderate positions like these polls say, you re considered a liberal.
were short. netflix surging following its quarterly report. that s it from cnbc first in business worldwide. now back to hardball. we, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths that all of us are created equal is the star that guides us still just as it guided our forebearers through seneca falls and selma, and stonewall. new polling on this. welcome back to hardball. that was president obama monday a couple days ago at his inaugural address. it was lines like that one that has defeated the right. anyway, it s got the defeated right braying about mr. obama s so-called liberal manifesto.
considered a liberal. if you re in the middle, the right sees you as the left. it s true. what do you think? well, i think the right is screaming that this is a liberal speech which should come as no surprise. barack obama has always been a progressive democrat. a pragmatist as a government manager, but progressive in his values. i know you re on the progressive side. would you call his speech out of the mainstream on the left side? no. i would say he was putting forward the most popular elements of the progressive tradition. which is a safety net, having government invest in the economy, build fracture of the highway system like eisenhower did. i think they re more liberal and mainstream than they ve been because the right has moved so far to the right they don t want to see government doing anything. and that s not i don t think that s what the and this is a nonpartisan assessment. the democratic party is where they ve always been. in some cases moderate than
and once again wayne lapierre of the nra is making an all out call to oppose all new measures for safety gun safety. he s against it all. plus the right wing chorus calls the president s inaugural address too liberal. but the latest poll shows that most americans happen to agree with the president. what s the problem? let me finish tonight with what we saw all day. a strong, confident, and happy secretary of state hillary clinton in a winning performance. this is hardball, the place for politics.
suction hashtag for his followers. what he links to is a cnn poll on their website. they titled it time doesn t change views on healthcare law. remember, mr. boehner is telling people to read the poll because it proves how unpopular health reform is. what this thing he linked to says is that 43% are opposed to health reform. americans are in fact opposed to health reform, in cnn s words, because it was, quote, too liberal. but 37% of americans like it. and an additional 13% of americans wanted even more liberal version of health reform. so 43% don t like it, a total of 50% like it or say they want more. so when john boehner said cnn proved obamacare is as unpopular as ever, what he really means is a majority of the people like it, or want even more, and that is a significantly higher proportion of the population than that which sides with him. against health care reform. when john boehner says health