The drama of Obamacare continues ...
If people thought, wrongly I might add, that the Senate parliamentarian's "ruling" yesterday made a bloody difference in this debate think again. The Democrats don't care. This is a "shut-up-America-we-know-better-than-you-do" moment for them involving their egos and legacy. They're moving flank-speed ahead on Obamacare, and a recent interview with Rep. Bart Stupak has shown exactly that. Robert Costa, of National Review, conducted an interview with him today, and he lays out exactly how the Democrat leaders in congress are thinking with regard to Obamacare, and informs people that his own pro-life coalition is facing mounting pressure from their leaders:
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.”
Readers should know and understand that the "Slaughter solution" is not only controversial, but it's unconstitutional. Article I, Section 7 specifically states that all legislation must be passed through both Houses of Congress. The rules scheme presented by Rep. Louise Slaughter directly violates that provision in the Constitution. Someone want to remind her idiotic @$$ that the Constitution is the highest law in the land, and no rule (congressional or otherwise) or law may trump the Constitution?
Additionally, we're not surprised by the arm-twisting going on by Pelosi, Reid, and company to get these people on board. A news report from Jim Geraghty has Granny Rictus claiming she has the votes to pass this fiasco. The NRCC is calling BS to her rhetoric. Their numbers show 187 yes votes, 196 no votes, and 48 undecided on the legislation so she doesn't have the votes she needs.
What this issue, this kabuki theater, shows America is that the Democrats don't believe in listening to the people of the nation. The MAJORITY of voters don't want this bill, as is. They'd prefer real bipartisan work and support for changes to the health care/health insurance industry in America. They know it doesn't involve a virtual takeover of both industries by the federal government. It involves common sense approaches to fixing things, and just ceding power to Uncle Sam isn't it. That will provide this nation with a fiscal disaster that isn't going to help the economy. It will guarantee that the federal government will have a say in the most basic rights we have been guaranteed by the Framers; the right to life without government intrusion or intervention.
The Democrats seem content to move forward on this suicide pact with voters, and should it come to pass, the American electorate won't be congratulating them in November. They'll be throwing their sorry @$$e$ out of office so fast that they'll be skidmarks on the ground outside Congress where their butt landed.
Publius II
PS -- No, we don't trust Stupak and his coalition, but right now they seem to be the line in the sand that America needs, bolstered by Republican opposition to a very bad bill.
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.”
Readers should know and understand that the "Slaughter solution" is not only controversial, but it's unconstitutional. Article I, Section 7 specifically states that all legislation must be passed through both Houses of Congress. The rules scheme presented by Rep. Louise Slaughter directly violates that provision in the Constitution. Someone want to remind her idiotic @$$ that the Constitution is the highest law in the land, and no rule (congressional or otherwise) or law may trump the Constitution?
Additionally, we're not surprised by the arm-twisting going on by Pelosi, Reid, and company to get these people on board. A news report from Jim Geraghty has Granny Rictus claiming she has the votes to pass this fiasco. The NRCC is calling BS to her rhetoric. Their numbers show 187 yes votes, 196 no votes, and 48 undecided on the legislation so she doesn't have the votes she needs.
What this issue, this kabuki theater, shows America is that the Democrats don't believe in listening to the people of the nation. The MAJORITY of voters don't want this bill, as is. They'd prefer real bipartisan work and support for changes to the health care/health insurance industry in America. They know it doesn't involve a virtual takeover of both industries by the federal government. It involves common sense approaches to fixing things, and just ceding power to Uncle Sam isn't it. That will provide this nation with a fiscal disaster that isn't going to help the economy. It will guarantee that the federal government will have a say in the most basic rights we have been guaranteed by the Framers; the right to life without government intrusion or intervention.
The Democrats seem content to move forward on this suicide pact with voters, and should it come to pass, the American electorate won't be congratulating them in November. They'll be throwing their sorry @$$e$ out of office so fast that they'll be skidmarks on the ground outside Congress where their butt landed.
Publius II
PS -- No, we don't trust Stupak and his coalition, but right now they seem to be the line in the sand that America needs, bolstered by Republican opposition to a very bad bill.
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 1:43 PM
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