Every GOP Senator Sponsors Health Care Repeal Bill

Updated 4:31 p.m. Eastern Time

Every Republican in the Senate has now agreed to cosponsor Senator Jim DeMint's (R-SC) bill to repeal the sweeping health care reform bill signed into law last March, CBS News has confirmed.

DeMint's office said Monday morning that it did not yet have the support of Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Thad Cochran  (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa). By the end of the day, all four had signed on as cosponsors.

The GOP-led House passed a bill to repeal the law on January 19th. The vote was seen as largely symbolic, however, since the measure was given little chance to get through the Democrat-led Senate.

Though Tea Party-aligned DeMint has gotten every Republican to sign onto his effort, he stills lack a majority in the Senate - let alone the 60-vote supermajority necessary to overcome a filibuster. Even if DeMint were to win over ten of the Democrats - an extremely unlikely proposition - he would still not have enough votes to break a filibuster. In addition, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is under no obligation to introduce the measure.

A January 20th CBS News poll found that 40 percent of Americans want to repeal the health care law, down slightly from November. A larger percentage - 48 percent - want to keep it. In addition, just 18 percent of Americans said health care is the most important issuefor Congress to focus on. Forty-three percent said jobs.

But support for repeal remains strong among Republicans, 73 percent of whom favor repeal, and GOP lawmakers campaigned in the midterm elections on a vow to "repeal and replace" the law.