February 17, 2011 07:02 PM UTC

So You Want To "Defund" Health Care Reform, Do You?

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• by: Colorado Pols

That’s the report in today’s Fort Collins Coloradoan, with high-profile coverage for Colorado freshman Rep. Cory Gardner, and his amendment that would strip federal funding for a key component of health care reform–state-based health insurance exchanges.

But as CBS reported this week, Republican zeal to attack “Obamacare” at every opportunity may be outrunning the wishes of the very same electorate they invoke to justify doing so:

A majority of the public disapproves of the Republican idea to cut off funding for health care reform, a new CBS News poll shows – although most also disapprove of the health care law, and many aren’t sure of its impact on the health care system.

Republicans in Congress have said they intend to do everything in their power to stop President Obama’s health care reforms from going into place – including de-funding provisions of the legislation. Funding for the new health care reforms is one component of the debate Republicans intend to have with the president this year over federal spending, deficit reduction and government regulations…

Most Americans, 55 percent, disapprove of the plan to cut off funding to the new health care reforms, and just 35 percent approve. Among Republicans, approval rises to 57 percent. Forty-nine percent of independents disapprove, and 38 percent approve.

Overall, Americans are wary of the new health care reform laws: 21 percent think the new law will make the system better, but 23 percent think the law will make the system worse.

Another 44 percent say they don’t know enough to say what the law’s impact will be. Uncertainty has increased since the law was first passed last year.

That 49% of independents say the push to defund health care reform is a bad idea should give every Republican in this independent-plurality state pause. For the last year or more, the assumption among pundits that the American people want “Obamacare” repealed was virtually bulletproof, even as polls showed the public warming to the law as the crazy rhetoric surrounding the debate was supplanted by facts. We submit to you that the persistent widespread uncertainty over what health care reform actually does is a direct product of the “death panel” hyperbolic misinformation campaign against it. And folks, that’s just not going to work very much longer.

The question is, how long will it work for Cory Gardner?