GOP resumes call for health law repeal; Schumer says support for Dems' effort will grow

Roll Call reported: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) pushed again for repeal of the health care law on "Face the Nation." "President Barack Obama 'burned a lot of bridges on health care reform,' DeMint said. 'To give up on repealing this bill will be giving up on this country.' ...  Bachmann also slammed the health care bill, saying it will cause 'massive job loss'" (Bruno, 2/28).

USA Today reports: "Senators from both parties also jousted on NBC's Meet The Press over how popular the health care law will be when the November congressional elections roll around. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said more Americans will like it as they realize the benefits. 'By November, those who voted for health care will find it an asset,' Schumer said. 'Those who voted against it will find it a liability.' Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said objections are spreading to state legislatures who resent the new burdens put in place by the health care law. 'We're gonna have referendums on this bill through every statehouse in the nation: Can the states support what Washington did to them?' Graham said" (Jackson, 3/28).

The Washington Post has a new poll on the health overhaul law: "Americans overwhelmingly see the new health-care law as a major shift in the direction of the country, but they remain as deeply divided today over the changes as they were throughout the long congressional debate, according to a Washington Post poll. In the days since President Obama signed the farthest-reaching piece of social welfare legislation in four decades, overall public opinion has changed little, with continuing broad public skepticism about the effects of the new law and more than a quarter of Americans seeing neither side as making a good-faith effort to cooperate on the issue" (Cohen and Balz, 3/28).

The New York Times reports: "Reflecting the bitter partisan divide over health care, governors in at least six states are at war with attorneys general from the other political party about whether to join litigation challenging the new federal health insurance mandate" (Sack, 3/27).

The New York Time explores the Democratic strategy of using reconciliation and how plans were made for that nearly a year ago. "Last April, [Rahm] Emanuel and Peter R. Orszag, the administration's budget guru, went to Capitol Hill to press Senate Democrats to make sure the budget then being written would provide the ability to approve a health care bill with the simple Senate majority that reconciliation requires. Democrats, led by Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and chairman of the Budget Committee, were skeptical, uncertain that the budget reconciliation process could even be employed that way. Hoping the theory would never be tested, Democrats inserted the procedural fail-safe in the budget document, allowing special protection for legislation covering health and education as long as it cut the deficit. After a series of wild political twists and turns, that procedural emergency exit turned out to be essential to enacting the health care legislation after all. 'It worked out,' a beaming Mr. Conrad said on Thursday, minutes after the Senate disposed of the budget reconciliation bill and concluded its acrimonious health care debate. But it did not work out as anyone had foreseen" (Hulse, 3/26).