DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02847.v3
title: CBS News Monthly Poll, July 1999
title: Version 3

description: This poll, fielded July 13-14, 1999, is part of a
continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on
the presidency and on a range of other political and social
issues. Respondents were asked to give their opinions of President
Bill Clinton, the United States Congress, First Lady Hillary Clinton,
Vice President Al Gore, Texas governor George W. Bush, and former New
Jersey senator Bill Bradley. Those queried were asked whether they
were concerned about potential Y2K computer problems and whether they
had acted on those concerns by stocking water, food, and money, and/or
copying personal medical and financial records. A series of questions
addressed the United States' health care system, with items on which
political party was best suited to improve the system, the effect that
health maintenance organizations (HMO) had on physician
decision-making and out-of-pocket expenses by patients, the current
trend toward more managed care, and respondents' experiences with the
medical system over the last year. Additional questions focused on
proposed federal legislation that would allow patients to appeal to
medical experts if denied treatment by their health insurance plans,
allow patients to sue HMOs if they were harmed due to a denial of
coverage, and change the Medicare system to cover prescription
costs. Those queried were also asked a series of questions regarding
gun ownership and gun control, including whether the Second Amendment
guaranteed all Americans the right to own a gun, whether gun
manufacturers should include trigger locks/safety devices with guns,
whether gun buyers should have to pass a safety course and be licensed
prior to purchase, whether gun owners should be required to register
their guns with the government, and whether individuals should be
permitted to carry concealed weapons. Additional topics covered the
proposed flat tax on income, decreasing the capital gains tax, keeping
Internet transactions free from state sales tax, offering child-care
tax credits to families with a stay-at-home parent, giving federal
money to faith-based institutions for local programming, campaign
finance reform including public financing and soft money
contributions, and the amount of attention paid to the 2000 election
campaigns. Background information on respondents includes age, sex,
race, education, religion, marital status, political party, political
orientation, Hispanic descent, age of children in household, household
income, computer access, stock market investments, and intention to
vote in 2000.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News Monthly Poll, July 1999
description: (1) This collection has not been processed by ICPSR
staff. ICPSR is distributing the data and documentation for this
collection in essentially the same form in which they were
received. When appropriate, hardcopy documentation has been converted
to machine-readable form and variables have been recoded to ensure
respondents' anonymity. (2) The codebook is provided as a Portable
Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe
Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software,
such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy
of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR Website on the
Internet.The ASCII data file may have been replaced if the previous version was formatted with multiple records per case. A frequency file, which contains the authoritative column locations, has been added to the collection.