Good news from a New York Times/CBS News poll this morning. Sixty percent of Americans -- including 62 percent of independents -- would be willing to pay more taxes to guarantee universal health coverage. But according to the poll, only 36 percent of Americans have confidence in Hillary Clinton’s ability to deliver health care reform this time around, and about half are unsure about John Edwards’ idea to require employers to either pay for health insurance or pay into a general fund to provide government coverage. And get this: A full 80 percent think health care is a more important priority than continuing the Bush tax cuts!

Edwards’ statement that he would repeal the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $200,000 a year to pay for universal health coverage was greeted as apostasy, but now here’s some hard evidence that the era of “tax” as a dirty word might be drawing to a close. Sure, Americans like to imagine that they’ll be rich enough someday to benefit from these regressive tax policies. But after six years of Bush, the country has a clear and weary-eyed view of what the de-funding of government looks like. And they don’t like what they see.

Cross-posted at TAPPED.