GOP coordinates renewed assault on health law as its two-year anniversary, court date near

Mar 21 2012

The fight for public opinion is expected to intensify in the days ahead -- as the date of the health law's Supreme Court oral arguments closes in.

The New York Times: Publicity Push As Health Law's Court Date Nears
Republicans on Capitol Hill have put together a highly coordinated two-week renewed assault on the health care law, seizing on the legislation's second anniversary and the next week's oral arguments before the Supreme Court concerning its constitutionality (Steinhauer and Pear, 3/19).

Roll Call: GOP To Sustain Attack On Health Care Law
Republicans and Democrats are skirmishing over President Barack Obama's health care law this week, and the fight is expected to intensify with the Supreme Court hearing arguments over the law's constitutionality starting next week. The battle is part of an underlying war -; the presidential campaign -; and top Republicans hope to leverage the attention on the 2-year-old law for maximum political effect. In the House, Republicans are bringing up a bill this week to eliminate a cost-control panel created in the law (Strong, 3/20).

Politico Pro: Outside Court Groups Try To Sway Opinions
Hundreds -; perhaps thousands -; of people will fill 1 First St. Northeast as the justices hear the arguments. There will be a rally to repeal the law, a prayer vigil to keep it in place and potentially more television cameras focused on the court than at any point since the infamous 2000 Bush v. Gore case. For many Americans, the Supreme Court case -; which will be spread over three days beginning March 26 -; will be the first they've heard about the law in a while. And both sides are hoping to get on the public's radar when it's paying attention (Haberkorn, 3/20).

NPR Shots Blog: How Do Racial Attitudes Affect Opinions About The Health Care Overhaul?
As the Supreme Court gets ready to hear a case involving the constitutionality of President Obama's health care overhaul, social scientists are asking a disturbing -; and controversial -; question: Do the intense feelings about the health care overhaul among ordinary Americans stem from their philosophical views about the appropriate role of government, or from their racial attitudes about the signature policy of the country's first black president? (Vedantam, 3/20).