Donnelly ignored my plea to him to vote NO on Obamacare, along with thousands of Hoosiers. And after I sent him an E-mail, I was put on the Indiana Dem Party E-mail distrubution list, against my wishes.
Posted on 08/12/2010 6:42:19 AM PDT by jaydubya2
SOUTH BEND — U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly insisted throughout the entire debate over health care reform that he would not vote for a bill that funds abortions with tax dollars.
In the end, he says he and other pro-life Democrats kept their promises:
They pushed President Barack Obama to sign an executive order specifically barring public funds from being used to pay for abortions in the health plans funded by the new law.
“I’m a pro-life congressman, and I try to make sure I keep that commitment every day,” Donnelly said in an interview today. “Federal funding for abortions is not health care.”
Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican and former congresswoman from Colorado, says Donnelly is a liar.
Musgrave was in South Bend today with The Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group run mostly by Republicans that is in the midst of a 23-city tour through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana to tell voters not to re-elect members of Congress who supported health care reform.
SBA organizers are traveling on a bus Musgrave called “a rolling billboard” because it’s adorned with images of Democrats, including Donnelly, who identify themselves as pro-life and voted in favor of the bill in March.
A crowd of about 40 people, 10 of whom were children with their parents, were waiting for the bus this morning at Jon R. Hunt Plaza downtown.
“When you cast a vote for the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade after campaigning as you are pro-life, you have lied and your vote will have consequences,” Musgrave told the crowd.
Those at the event today cited a Congressional Research Services report that says $5 billion provided in the new law for high-risk uninsured persons with pre-existing conditions is not necessarily blocked from being used for abortions.
But Donnelly said the executive order “is very clear” in its requirement of federal agencies to create procedures that ensure no public money is used for abortions except in cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the woman.
Another safeguard is the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortions but must be attached to Department of Health and Human Services appropriations each year to remain in effect. It has been renewed each year since 1976, but Donnelly said he supports a bill to make it permanent and apply to all federal funding, not just certain departments’ appropriations.
People on government-subsidized health plans will still be able to buy an extension, or rider, to their policy that covers elective abortions, but they will have to pay for it out of their own pockets and the money has to be kept separate from the main policy.
Critics of health care reform have decried the executive order as not “worth the paper it’s printed on,” and Musgrave said today that an executive order “does not carry the weight of law.”
But U.S. presidents have signed thousands of them for purposes as wide ranging as integrating the military and establishing new federal agencies. Abraham Lincoln signed what is likely the most-famous executive order — the Emancipation Proclamation.
The “dodge” in the health care bill, according to Tom Minnery of Focus on the Family, is that people who will be covered by the new law’s government-subsidized insurance policies will still be able to receive coverage for abortions if they pay a separate fee out of their own pockets.
“Without government funding to the rest of (the insurance policy), this whole side gimmick would not even be possible,” said Minnery, who is Family’s senior vice president of government and public policy, and spoke today at Hunt Plaza. “Presently, there is no program subsidized by the federal government that makes abortion available. Under this, it will be.”
He also pointed out that there have already been instances in New Mexico and Pennsylvania where funds set aside for that high-risk pool were approved for abortion-related services. Then it was Right to Life groups, not the government, that discovered it was happening, he claimed.
In those cases, Donnelly said, Obama’s executive order blocked the funds from being used for abortions.
“It’s already been tested, and it’s already succeeded,” he said. “The recent decisions by the Department of Health and Human Services, the recent guidelines sent down made it very, very clear both in Pennsylvania and in New Mexico that not a dime can be used. There is no gray area.”
He added, “Maybe there’s another ax to grind here, but the executive order not only can work, it already has worked and has done exactly what we said it would do.”
It’s OK to be on their mailing list- now you can see what they are up to
just another baby killer...
He sold out to 0bamaCare..
that's all we need to know.
If Donnelly spun the ‘exceptions’ any faster, the whole world would have 23 hours of darkness and have only 1 hour of daylight.
“Pro-life” Democrat = baby killer
Melancon in La. is trying the same Bravo Sierra against Vitter.
“Donnelly said, Obama’s executive order blocked the funds from being used for abortions.” If he didn’t know and understand that an executive order is worthless, then he should be booted out pronto. I believe he knew exactly what it is and wanted an excuse to vote for obamacare in the hope that the ignorant masses would not see through it. The man I believe is a liar or else is just plain stupidly dumb.
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