GOP develops strategies to focus on health law in upcoming election season

The Hill: GOP To Renew Attack On Health Care  Reform
The 2012 election year will see a sustained Republican push to repeal the health care reform law in bits and pieces, members of both parties say. The new House majority's first major legislative effort back in January was a highly publicized party-line vote to repeal the whole law, a bill that, predictably, foundered in the Senate. Now, however, Republicans plan to focus on two provisions of the reform that could put Democrats, and the president, in a tougher bind as the election approaches -; the Independent Payment Advisory Board and the CLASS Act. The goal is to keep the spotlight on other controversial aspects of the health care law while the Supreme Court rules on the unpopular individual mandate. Republicans see this as a winning strategy, and appear to be supported in this assessment by the latest Kaiser Health tracking polls. They show the law continues to be unpopular, with 44 percent of Americans saying they have a negative view of the law versus 37 percent who support it (Pecquet, 12/2).