The White House is touting a finding from the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the president's controversial health care law "continues to significantly increase the number of young adults who have health insurance."

Because of the health care law, young adults can stay on their parents' insurance plans through age 26.  Data from a National Health Interview Survey found that since Sept. 2010, the percentage of adults aged 19-25 covered by a private health insurance plan increased significantly, with approximately 2.5 million more young adults with insurance coverage compared to the number of young adults who would have been insured without the law.

 "Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 2.5 million more young adults don't have to live with the fear and uncertainty of going without health insurance," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Moms and dads around the country can breathe a little easier knowing their children are covered."

Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination say their first day in office would include finding a way to repeal the act, which they say the US can't afford. Democrats say Obama will tout it as a success on the campaign trail.

48 percent of Americans think the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn the 2010 federal health care law, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

The national survey found 40 percent thought the court, which plans to hear the case early next year, should leave the law intact.

Sentiment fell sharply along party lines. Democrats favored retaining the law, championed by President Barack Obama, 70-19 percent. Republicans, whose presidential candidates want the law repealed and replaced, oppose the law, 86-8 percent.

Independents want the law overturned, by a 45-38 margin.

The poll surveyed 2,552 people from Nov. 14-20. Margin of error is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

Reactions to the supercommittee failure are pouring in, and they tend to be partisan and angry. The sharply divided reactions are probably best reflected in the views of the two Senate leaders, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

Here are some of Reid's comments:

“The American people are tired of their elected leaders listening to the extreme voices in their party instead of the voices of reason.  I am disappointed that Republicans never found the courage to ignore Tea Party extremists and millionaire lobbyists like Grover Norquist, and listen instead to the overwhelming majority of Americans – including the vast majority of Republicans – who want a balanced approach to deficit reduction. 

"For the good of our country, Democrats were prepared to strike a grand bargain that would make painful cuts while asking millionaires to pay their fair share, and we put our willingness on paper. But Republicans never came close to meeting us halfway. “Instead, Republicans relentlessly sought to end Medicare as we know it by privatizing the program and putting seniors and future generations at the mercy of insurance companies. In addition, Republicans insisted on expanding President Bush’s tax giveaways to millionaires, an approach that would have made our deficit problems bigger, not smaller, while increasing the gap between the top one percent of taxpayers and everyone else.  Democrats are open to reforming our tax code, but we will not go along with efforts to provide even more giveaways to millionaires at the expense of the middle class."

Here's some of McConnell:

 “For those of us who hoped that this committee could make some of the tough decisions President Obama continues to avoid, the Democrats’ rejection of not one but two good-faith Republican proposals is deeply disappointing. The good news is that even without an agreement, $1.2 trillion will still be cut from the deficit. Now it falls on the President to ensure that the defense cuts he insisted upon do not undermine national security, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned.

“With this administration's out-of-control federal spending over the past three years, unemployment stuck at 9 percent, and a $15 trillion debt which grows daily, we felt it was necessary to create this extraordinary mechanism to reduce spending and make needed changes. Republicans viewed this committee as a golden opportunity to change the direction of the nation's fiscal trajectory and create a better environment for job growth. This was reflected in the seriousness of our appointees, and it was reflected in two Republican proposals that were designed to attract Democratic support." 

Democrats are making it clear they think the Supreme Court will uphold the 2010 health care law.

The Supreme Court agreed  Monday to hear arguments about the law's constitutionality, and Republicans said they were optimistic it would be overturned.

Not House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"Today’s announcement places the Affordable Care Act before the highest court in our country.  We are confident that the Supreme Court will find the law constitutional and Americans will benefit from lower health care costs and greater access to high-quality medical care," she said in a statement.

“Millions of our nation’s families, seniors, young adults, and workers are already benefiting from the law.  Seniors are receiving discounts on prescription drugs and free preventive services.  Young people are gaining insurance by staying on their parents’ plans.  And children with pre-existing conditions are now protected from discrimination.”

The 2010 health care law's individual mandate is gaining support.

A CNN/ORC International poll, taken Nov. 11-13, found 52 percent favored the mandate, up from 44 percent in June. 47 were opposed this time, down from 54 percent last time.

The law requires nearly everyone to obtain coverage by 2014, or face a penalty. The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear arguments regarding the law's constitutionality. The mandate has been at the heart of opponents' concerns.

The poll surveyed 1,036 adults. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

 House Speaker John Boehner has long supported repealing the 2010 federal health care law and replacing it with a series  of other intiatives.

So when the Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear challenges to the law, Boehner was clear on what he sought:

“The American people did not support this law when it was rushed through Congress and they do not support it now that they’ve seen what’s in it. In keeping with our Pledge to America, Republicans have voted to repeal and defund the law, and successfully repealed portions of it," he said.

"This government takeover of health care is threatening jobs, increasing costs, and jeopardizing coverage for millions of Americans, and I hope the Supreme Court overturns it.”

Erskine Bowles, the former Clinton White House chief of staff, headed a bipartisan panel last year that recommended tough steps for reducing federal deficits.

Tuesday, he testified before Congress' "supercommittee." And he didn't seem optimistic that the panel would come up with the savings it's seeking.

"I have great respect for each of you individuially," he said, "but collectively, I'm worried you're going to fail, fail the country."

Key members of both parties made their views clear as Congress' supercommittee began its latest public hearing.

Co-chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said that "fundamental and structural" changes are needed to entitlement programs. Such programs include Medicare, and Democrats have been reluctant to back dramatic changes.

And so, said co-chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash: "But these concessions woudl only be made--and only considered--in the context of a balanced deal that doesn't just fall on the middle class and most vulnerable Americans--but that requires big corporations and the wealthiest among us to share in the sacrificies."

The House of Representatives Thursday passed overwhelmingly a masure to repeal a planned government withholding on contractor payments, a bill considered particularly important to the small business community.

And it was a piece of President Barack Obama's job package, albeit a small one.

Under current law, federal, state and local governments are to withhold 3 percent of funds going to its contractors. Critics argued the provision, which is scheduled to go into effect in 2013, would yield little revenue, but become a burden on business.

Lawmakers from both parties agreed, as the House voted 405 to 16 to back the provision.

There was less enthusiasm, though, for the legislation that would pay for the repeal. The House passed, 262 to 157, curbing eligibility for some government health programs.

The measures now go to the Senate.

Just in time for Tuesday’s Republican debate in New Hampshire, the White House Tuesday helped cause a little trouble for Mitt Romney.

Responding to a question, Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the Obama administration did base its health care law in part on the law Romney pushed while governor of Massachusetts.

“There were a number of very good ideas included in the health care plan that then-Governor Romney put in place in Massachusetts that were incorporated into the Affordable Health Care Act, the Affordable Care Act,” Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday as the president traveled to Pittsburgh.

“So it’s clear that these are some ideas that we were interested in incorporating and we did incorporate.”

Earnest was commenting on a report from NBC News that White House officials in 2009 met at least a dozen times with three health care experts who helped design the bill Romney signed into law in 2006. Obama himself chaired one of the sessions.

The Massachusetts law mandated that people buy health insurance, as the new federal law does. Conservatives hate it, making it a problem for Romney. He’s insisted that he would never seek a federal mandate, and that he’d seek the repeal of the Obama law.

Earnest declined to comment on reports of White House meetings with Romney advisers.

“In terms of individual meetings and who participated and what the goal of them was, I don't have that information,” he said. “The President has talked a number of times about the significant influence that the good ideas that were included in Governor Romney’s plan and the benefits of those ideas that were incorporated into the Affordable Care Act.”