As people learn what’s actually in the bill, that six months from now, by election time, this is going to be a plus because the parade of horribles, particularly the worry that the average middle class person has that this is going to affect them negatively, will have vanished and they’ll see that it’ll affect them positively in many ways…”

NY Sen. Chuck Schumer, on “Meet The Press”, March 28, 2010

Most of us thought Chuck Schumer was full of it in March, 2010 (among other times/places/etc.), and…we were right.

Today, Rasmussen Reports released their latest poll on Obamacare.  For the second week in a row, Rasmussen showed that 57% of registered voters would like to see Obamacare repealed (36% oppose repeal).   Rasmussen says:

A majority of voters have favored repeal every week but one since March 2010, with support for repeal running as high as 63%.

There was only one week since March, 2010 that Americans have had some semblance of support for O-care.   One. week.  Rasmussen’s tracking of the issue shows that opposition to Obamacare has remained in the  50-60% range since the legislation passed.

President Obama is planning to deliver a big “jobs speech” this week.  I doubt we’ll see this happen, but one of the most effective job growth measures that Obama could announce would be a repeal of Obamacare.  In January, 2011, Speaker of the House Boehner, Rep. Paul Ryan, Rep. Eric Cantor and several other House members delivered a paper outlining how Obamacare was a “budget-busting, job-killing” disaster.

Independent analyses have determined that the health care law will cause significant job losses for the U.S. economy: the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that the law will reduce the “amount of labor used in the economy by … roughly half a percent…,” an estimate that adds up to roughly 650,000 jobs lost.  A study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the nation’s largest small business association, found that an employer mandate alone could lead to the elimination of 1.6 million jobs, with 66 percent of those coming from small businesses.  By comparison, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated that “in its life,” the health care law would “create 4 million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”

The Democrats would never admit that Obama’s only significant legislative victory is one of the most negative developments on the economic/jobs front since he took office.  And we can be sure that the President will never back down on this bill…such a move would cement a GOP victory in 2012.  But if he is truly serious about saving/creating jobs, this is precisely the kind of damaging governmental intrusion that he should stop.

As I’ve written here previously, the GOP must not lose sight of Obamacare as a defining issue in the 2012 election.  We must continue to wave the Obamacare repeal flag in front of the American electorate and remind them of what a mess the Obama administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress have wrought upon this country.

57% of Americans have figured out that they’ve had an economic disaster shoved down their throats.  Let’s make that number grow.