After two years of debates and state by state court rulings, the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), will be argued in front of the Supreme Court for an unprecedented 5.5 hours over the next three days. No one knows what the decision will be from the Supreme Court. However, according to the most recent polls, and most polls since the legislation was introduced, both Republicans and many Democrats don't believe that this mandate is constitutional.
The individual mandate is a key section of the legislation. The individual mandate is the part of the new healthcare law that forces you to buy health insurance if you are a citizen of the United States.
“To be a legal citizen, you have to purchase this product,” Glenn said.
“Remember, the Tea Party has been positioned saying that it’s unconstitutional as hateful extremists,” Stu points out before reading the approval ratings for Obamacare and the individual mandate.
The latest polls numbers have come after two years of the Obama Administration telling Americans how wonderful this legislation is, and using the Tea Party as a scape goat to any negative coverage of the law.
Here is what Stu had to report from recent Gallup Polls:
“72% of Americans say that the individual mandate is unconstitutional,” he said.
After Pat joked that those poll results obviously come from conservative voters, Stu gave the actual breakdown of participants in the polling data. Not surprisingly, 94% of Republicans believe the mandate is unconstitutional. However, 70% of Independents and 56% of Democrats also say that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.
“Give me the number of people who like it,” Glenn told Stu.
Stu reported that only 38% of the people that are for the mandate believe it to be constitutional.
“Now, let’s see what happens with the Supreme Court,” Glenn said. “Are they even in-step with the American people?”