On Saturday night the Democrats narrowly passed a monstrosity of a health-care bill. Some conservatives blamed the National Right to Life Committee. How is that possible? Posted on 11/10/2009 3:08:13 AM PST by mlizzy
On Saturday night the Democrats narrowly passed a monstrosity of a health-care bill. Some conservatives blamed the National Right to Life Committee. How is that possible?
In order to get enough votes to secure final passage, Nancy Pelosi allowed an up-or-down vote on the Stupak amendment to bar federal funding of abortion through the health-care bill. Rep. John Shadegg (R, Ariz.), who made a bid this year to be Republican minority leader, and Americans for Prosperity urged Republicans to defeat the pro-life measure by voting present. They argued that defeating the amendment could bring down the entire bill:
“(Nancy) Pelosi is speaker and she’s pro abortion every minute of every hour of every day as speaker,” Shadegg said in an interview with POLITICO Saturday evening. “This is a vote to help her move the bill forward.”
In the end the Stupak amendment passed on a 240 to 194 vote. Although at least a handful of Republicans entertained the idea of voting present, Shadegg was the only one to do so. The GOP leadership released a statement that seemed to respond to those who wanted to bring down the amendment. "To be clear, the Stupak-Pitts Amendment's passage is the right thing to do," Representatives Boehner, Cantor, and Pence said in a statement. "We believe you just don’t play politics with life."
(Excerpt) Read more at calcatholic.com ...
This whole damned bill plays politics with life. They are insane and blood thirsty for power.
We know that they are working hard to strip the Stupak ammendment from the Senate Bill.
Anyone with an ounce of morality and courage should have voted no for the House Bill. This is a bill that will strip liberty and freedoms from all Americans.
No, I don’t believe it would have killed the bill either, but it did give many blue dogs cover to say, well I voted for it after they took out the abortion funding. I believe Republicans should have cast a “not voting” vote and let the pro-life dems. sink.. Repubs. just have no clue how to fight dirty.
I wish that Stupak had failed also, but the author is correct that that would not have been the end of this mess.
Here is the issue and the national right to life committee (NRLC) and the catholic bishops association should be ashamed. NRLC came out and stated that a present vote would be considered a no vote for the amendment thus they would hold it against them on the right to life score. They forced Republicans to vote for the amendment thereby ensuring enough votes to pass the overall bill when the amendment was added. Of course the Catholics are going to come out with an article trying to justify the reason they hung Americans out to dry by supporting this bill. This bill would not have passed without the amendment pure and simple and we have the two organization above to blame.
Disagree completely. Look at the source. I wonder how much the Catholic Bishops and National Right to Life committee profited by this. They allowed themselves to be used as pawns on an amendment that is going to be so watered down coming out of committee that it will be unrecognizable. Of course they are going to put out an article stating it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. They are wrong.
>>Repubs. just have no clue how to fight dirty.<<
They are too concerned about offending “my dear friends across the aisle” and “maintaining the moral high ground”.
Well, I DO know how to fight dirty. I was taught by the best - Marine Drill Instructors at Parris Island. And I will fight this bill.
I REFUSE TO OBEY. I WILL NOT DIE ON MY KNEES AND IN CHAINS.
The Stupak amendment did not provide for the equal protection of the laws for ALL persons, as required by the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments. Therefore the moral and constitutional vote was “nay.”
Unfortunately for the thousands of children who continue to be slaughtered every day, NRTL and their Republican allies don’t care about that any more. They’re too busy raising money and playing political games.
The irony is that they’re not even very good at that. The amendment accomplished nothing but to give political cover to craven politicians who thought they needed it. In both parties.
I have been thinking about this and just might get majorly flamed for saying it, but...
When it comes to this very, very unConstitutional bit of legislation
I don’t care about an abortion amendment. Caring about an abortion amendment means I am willing to accept the rest of the bill...if it doesn’t include baby murder.
I don’t care about an amendment dealing with the LBGT diseases. Caring about the religious amendments is a red herring to pass the bill.
This isn’t about religion for me...it is about the Constitution, liberty, and smaller government.
Use some caution here and don’t be so accepting of the amendments, when the rest of the bill still puts the chains that kill on all of us. The little amendment “wins” really are not wins at all. Wake up and realize when your religious beliefs are being used against you.
I didn’t know about that part.(about voting not present) How frustrating! If I were a pro life Catholic, someone would be hearing from me.
We need a like button like on facebook. Good post. :)
But then all the Republicans would have had a campaign add saying that when they had the chance to vote for prohibiting federal funding of abortion, they voted no. You can’t give your opponents soundbite commercial material. Most voters won’t take the time to understand the procedural tricks of passing legislation. The vote would be on the record without any editorial comments. Campaign dollars would have to be spent defend themselves. The Dem opponents would try to paint themselves as a pro-life alternative to the pro-choice Republican.
If that was true then they would NOT have supported the amendment because Obamacare will care far more people than this amendment would save.
This is exactly why the two party system is a failure in this country.
The fact of the matter is...the Stupak amendment gave the first opportunity for this bill to pass.
Since the Republicans all voted no on the bill itself and they knew they weren’t going to vote for it...then voting for the Stupak amendment was unethical. Think about it - you know you are not going to vote for the bill and no amount of amendments proposed will change your mind...so what do you do - you either vote no - THE RIGHT THING TO DO - or you vote present - THE CORWARDLY THING TO DO
But voting yes you might make some political hay with a particular group but you doomed the nation one step closer to Obamacare.
The fact that any politician tells you amendment is the “right” thing to do...give me a break...WHEN HAVE THEY EVER HAD THE COURAGE TO DO THE RIGHT THING?
The answers for our country are NOT with the Democrats or Republicans.
More importantly than that, it allowed them to pass it with a larger margin than a single vote.
A single vote would have allowed the Republicans to run ads against every single Democrat who voted for it saying that theirs was the vote that passed it.
If Nancy Pelosi does double-cross the pro-life Democrats and strip the pro-life language from the conference report, she would almost certainly lose at least 3 of the 42 members who voted both for Stupak amendment and final passage--enough to defeat the bill. So Democrats are left playing a game of chicken.
But if Republicans had voted down the Stupak amendment on Saturday night, they would have taken the issue off the table. "It would have looked extremely cynical," says Ponnuru. According to a House Republican aide, the "only message that would have come out of the Shadegg stunt is that Republicans only want to protect the unborn when they are in charge, but are willing to sacrifice them for political gamesmanship."
"If the Democrats had put up a phony amendment, that would be another story -- then we would have to call them out, but they did exactly what we asked. 183 Members, including Shadegg, asked for a vote on the Stupak amendment," the staffer added.
Senate Republicans could hardly have demanded that the bill bar federal funding of abortion after House Republicans had defeated the measure. Republicans would have been murdered in the press, and their pro-life reputations tarnished at least through the next couple election cycles.
Bringing down Stupak would have seriously hurt the effort to defeat Obamacare. The minority Republicans need public opinion and moderate Democrats on their side to defeat the health-care bill. Betraying pro-life Democrats and playing the part of cynical politicians for the media would have damaged that effort.
There are many ways to fight this administration:
The Holy Mass (approx. 30 minutes) is offered every single day.
Here is what St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina said about the Mass: “It would be easier for the world to survive without the sun than to do so without the Holy Mass.” Why? Because the supreme and powerful, capable-of-changing-the-world Christ, literally resides in the Holy Eucharist offered at Mass. Why would one NOT want that type of daily surge and "Light?"
The Rosary -- a powerful weapon -- can be recited for protection, even when fighting fierce wars.
Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapels are available in many areas now. They are places of prayer that feature Jesus in the Eucharist placed on an altar (in a monstrance) for you to pray to. This, along with the Rosary, can be used by any faith. (As an interesting note, Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapels Everywhere spells PEACE.):) There is also the Sacrament of Reconciliation for Catholics, which washes away sin, making one less cynical to "fight the good fight."
As Fr. Euteneuer, one of only twelve official Catholic exorcists in the United States (he understands evil firsthand) has stated, “We are reminded that even supposed political victories are temporary, and that the solution to these problems is not political, even if we have to keep up the political fight and our activist efforts. We are called to prayer, fasting and conversion… only God can put a stop to the horror of abortion now.”
... And from Mother Teresa of Calcutta, "If we are contemplatives in the heart of the world with all its problems, these problems can never discourage us. We must always remember what God tells us in Scripture: 'Even if a mother could forget the child in her womb - something impossible, but even if she could forget - I will never forget you.'"
Memo to finger-in-the-wind Republicans: Do the right thing; let the chips fall where they may.
Yeah to all that thought the Stupak amendment was a good idea...now Obama is going to strike it from the health care bill.
Yeah really smart STUPID GOP to support this so the moderate DEM’s would then vote for the bill...this could have been stopped in the house if it weren’t for the GOP supporting this amendment.
Just another fine example of the GOP pandering to a special interest and the country gets screwed.
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