Stupak: Pro-Life House Dems May Oppose Senate Health Care Bill

Personally, I'm not in the mood for false hope and I don't think this threat is real but here you go.

"They know that the 64 Democrats who voted with the Republicans on my amendment, we feel strongly that we cannot support a healthcare bill which goes past the current restrictions, which is no federal funding for abortion," Stupak said during an appearance on Fox News, speaking about Democratic leaders in the House.

Stupak, who has said the Senate's language on abortion is, in fact, "unacceptable," warned that the Senate's provision and other elements of the bill could cost Democrats support for final passage of health reform in the House.

"So, if they go farther than that, a lot of us will find it very difficult to vote for the Senate bill," he said. "Not just because of the abortion language, but even other language in the Senate bill those of us in the House are not pleased to see."

Gee, maybe the Republicans should have called Stupak's bluff awhile back and not have passed his amendment during the House debate. Oh right, Republicans don't play games with life, just with the health care and freedom of all Americans.

IIRC, Stupak at the time of the House debate said he might have voted for the House bill even if his amendment had failed. Why exactly we are supposed to believe he's super cereal now, I'm not sure.

The Democrats still have some work to do to reconcile the bills, either in conference (which could be dangerous) or by twisting enough arms in the House to get them to swallow hard enough to accept the Senate bill as is.

My guess is Nancy will strong arm her caucus thorough a combination of bribes and promises to 'fix' things later that the House will suck it up and pass the Senate bill. Clearly, there's no deal she and Reid won't make or limit on how much of our money they will spend to get to 218 and 60 in their respective houses.

I hope I'm wrong but as we've seen over the last few weeks, relying on Democrats, even self-proclaimed moderate ones to do the right thing is a losing strategy.

posted by DrewM. at 03:33 PM

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