Posted on 03/12/2010 1:12:07 PM PST by reaganaut1
Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is chagrined. “They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That’s their strategy now. The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate’s health-care bill without us. At this point, there is no doubt that they’ve been able to peel off one or two of my twelve. And even if they don’t have the votes, it’s been made clear to us that they won’t insert our language on the abortion issue.”
According to Stupak, that group of twelve pro-life House Democrats — the “Stupak dozen” — has privately agreed for months to vote ‘no’ on the Senate’s health-care bill if federal funding for abortion is included in the final legislative language. Now, in the debate’s final hours, Stupak says the other eleven are coming under “enormous” political pressure from both the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.). “I am a definite ‘no’ vote,” he says. “I didn’t cave. The others are having both of their arms twisted, and we’re all getting pounded by our traditional Democratic supporters, like unions.”
Stupak says he also doesn’t trust the “Slaughter solution,” a legislative maneuver being bandied about on Capitol Hill as a way to pass the Senate bill in the House without actually voting on it. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” he says. “I don’t have a warm-and-fuzzy feeling about what I’m hearing.”
Stupak notes that his negotiations with House Democratic leaders in recent days have been revealing. “I really believe that the Democratic leadership is simply unwilling to change its stance,” he says. “Their position says that women, especially those without means available, should have their abortions covered.” The arguments they have made to him in recent deliberations, he adds, “are a pretty sad commentary on the state of the Democratic party.”
What are Democratic leaders saying? “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing,” Stupak says. “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.”
If Obamacare passes, Stupak says, it could signal the end of any meaningful role for pro-life Democrats within their own party. “It would be very, very hard for someone who is a right-to-life Democrat to run for office,” he says. “I won’t leave the party. I’m more comfortable here and still believe in a role within it for the right-to-life cause, but this bill will make being a pro-life Democrat much more difficult. They don’t even want to debate this issue. We’ll probably have to wait until the Republicans take back the majority to fix this.”
“Throughout this debate, even when the House leaders have acknowledged us, it’s always been in a backhanded way,” he laments. “I’m telling the others to hold firm, and we’ll meet next week, but I’m disappointed in my colleagues who said they’d be with us and now they’re not. It’s almost like some right-to-life members don’t want to be bothered. They just want this over.”
And the politics of the issue are pretty rough. “This has really reached an unhealthy stage,” Stupak says. “People are threatening ethics complaints on me. On the left, they’re really stepping it up. Every day, from Rachel Maddow to the Daily Kos, it keeps coming. Does it bother me? Sure. Does it change my position? No.”
Strange times we’re living in.
Dems: We want to kill more babies, because it will save money in our socialist health care system.
So Pelosi can twist arms and attack and it is ok with the media, but when Tom DeLay did it he was a bully?
Well, Bart, can you say "Eric Massa"?
From the beginning it has mystified me whythe abortion provisions were not jettisoned early so that they can get this thing in place as a fait accompli.They can always add the abortion language later unless they have judged that the country is trending the “wrong way.”Perhaps the feeliong among the female leftists is that abortion really is an unforgivable sin and they can and must legislate the sinfulness of it away for self vindication and the assuaging of of their own souls, however they might conceive them. Perhaps that is even more important to them than the socialism. I never considered that before.
Sounds like a Semmens spoof.
Should he be saved from defeat in November for his principled stand?
I am not going to pay for abortions, ever, no matter what.
Two reasons -
#1 - He refuses to oppose the bill on its basic premise. The people don't want government-run health care, and it's not going to make it better even if it does include a ban on abortion funding. We all know the ACLU or some lib group will file suit and the court will force Obamacare to cover abortions. So gov't run healthcare is fine as long as abortions aren't covered?
#2 - Where was Stupak when Planned Parenthood was being funded? He had an opportunity to vote against funding for PP but didn't do so.
FReepers who putting their faith on these so-called moderate or Blue Dog Democrats are being played for suckers.
Hell no, because you're already letting the enemy win the long-term war.
I give the guy credit for standing up. He’s held firm when lesser people have folded.
If money is the issue - everyone in Washington works for $1 a year; no retirement; and the healthcare is the same as ordinary taxpayers.
I agree...I just want it over, too, so I can stop losing sleep over my freedoms being ripped away.
The best outcome for them is being able to go back to their loonie progressive base and claim they did their best, then get back to what they do best - degenerate, dehumanize & debase anyone who disagrees with them.
This has been a continuous nightmare since the 2008 election and it just doesn't end.
So now we have the smoking gun. The Democrats ARE the party of death.
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