Health Care Repeal "Dead"

So says the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Dave Camp (R-MI). Uh, why is that news? There would be no way the House could get the Senate to vote for repeal, and absolutely no way Obama would not veto it if it made it to his desk, so the bill was dead even before it was written.

Now the House will focus on overturning the most controversial part of the Affordable Care Act: namely, the requirement that each individual buy health insurance, either privately or through the insurance exchange. Already a couple of courts in Republican states have ruled the mandate unconstitutional, so there may be an opening there. Still, I'm finding it hard to believe an extremely popular idea (albeit one couched in an extremely complicated and cumbersome law) would go down in defeat because of the mandate.