United Liberty

As we get closer to a ruling from the Supreme Court over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as ObamaCare, a recent poll from The New York Times and CBS News shows that Americans want to see President Barack Obama’s signature domestic law dismantled:

Forty-one percent of those surveyed said the court should strike down the entire law, and another 27 percent said the justices should overturn only the individual mandate, which requires most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty.

These numbers have not changed much in recent months and appeared to be largely unaffected by the more than six hours of arguments in the Supreme Court in March.

There was greater Republican opposition to the law than Democratic support. About two-thirds of Republicans in the recent survey said the entire law should be overturned, while 43 percent of Democrats said all of the law should be upheld.

More than 70 percent of independent voters said they wanted to see some or all of the law struck down, with a majority saying they hoped to see the whole law overturned. Twenty-two percent of independents said they hoped the entire law would survive.

You read that right, folks; the ObamaCare doesn’t even have majority support among Democrats. But with a unique opportunity to capitalize on the issue and roll out their own healthcare plan, Republicans are still focusing on messaging to repeal the law — assuming, of course, that the Supreme Court doesn’t strike it down.

They seem to be lost on the issue entirely as recent news shows House Republicans debating the “slacker mandate,” which allows “children” up to 26 to stay on their parents health insurance. In fact, some House Republicans want to raise the slacker mandate to 31. As Peter Suderman recently noted, the slacker mandate is causing many colleges to cease offering student health insurance due to rising costs attributed to ObamaCare.

FreedomWorks, a grassroots organization that closely aligns itself with the Tea Party movement, is pushing the OPTION Act sponsored by Rep. Paul Broun, a doctor from Georgia. This patient-centered healthcare legislation would work to decrease costs by enabling competition in the market. Unfortunately, House Republicans haven’t showed enough backbone on the issue to either get behind Rep. Broun’s legislation or introduce some viable alternative.

The Supreme Court may do their job for them by only striking down the individual mandate, which is the worst part of the law, and leaving the rest of it intact. But the lack of a plan on healthcare, outside of constantly saying “repeal,” shows a real lack of leadership in the House.