“If the individual mandate goes down, so does the whole law”
Now you’re getting it.
“so to your plan he’ll also say, “I will not destroy the Affordable Care Act.””
Ah, he CAN say that all he wants, but what everyone will see is that he vetoed the repeal of the part that everyone hates the most. The one part that was sent to him.
The People hate *ObamaCare*. That's all most of them know. Probably 95% of those "everyones" you talk about have no idea what the individual mandate is.
You think losing the entire country in a complex policy-wonk debate about the merits of "the individual mandate" would be more effective than simply "repealing ObamaCare?"
Not many people are as informed as those on this forum. Nobody I know who has seen these ball-busting monthly premiums and astronomic deductibles has ever said to me, If not for that individual mandate.... No. What I have heard quite often however is, F***ing ObamaCare!