The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports today, “Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March.” The New York Times adds, “Missouri voters on Tuesday easily approved a measure aimed at nullifying the new federal health care law, becoming the first state in the nation where ordinary people made known their dismay over the issue at the ballot box.” And The Wall Street Journal notes, “With all precincts reporting, 71% of voters supported Proposition C, establishing a state law that says Missouri cannot compel people to pay a penalty or fine if they fail to carry health coverage. Twenty-nine percent voted against the proposition.”

The NYT explains why the Missouri referendum is so important: “The measure was intended to invalidate a crucial element of President Obama’s health care law — namely, that most people be required to get health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Supporters of the measure said it would send a firm signal to Washington about how this state, often a bellwether in presidential elections, felt about such a law.”

Yesterday’s vote is yet another confirmation that Americans continue to oppose Democrats’ massive health care takeover. The WSJ notes in its story, “A June Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 44% think Mr. Obama’s health-care plan is a bad idea, while 40% called it a good idea.” But just last month, 2 polls showed support for the law under 40%, while a third, from Democrat polling firm PPP, showed opposition to the law at 53%. And yet in spite of all of this, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) still claims, “Remember, any poll you see today, the majority of the American people support what we did here with health care.”

This hasn’t really been a good week for the health care law. On Monday, “A federal judge has refused to block a challenge to the Obama administration’s health care law brought by the Commonwealth of Virginia,” as the NYT reported. That lawsuit came in part from another state-based repudiation of the individual mandate, where the Virginia legislature, one house controlled by Republicans and the other by Democrats, passed a law saying residents of the state could not be compelled to purchase health insurance. And yesterday, Politico featured a report from the Congressional Research Service declaring it ‘impossible’ to count all the new bureaucratic entities created by the 2,800-page health care bill.

Is it any wonder Americans continue to say they don’t like the health care takeover? Polls show there hasn’t been majority support for the Democrats’ health plan since this time last year.

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