Stupak: "There is No Deal"
Rangel: "Nothing is Going to Be Changed"

And he says he won't agree to a promise now for action later.

Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak said yesterday at a townhall in his home state, "I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago" that a deal could be reached to pass a health care bill that bans public funding of abortion. Some speculated that this meant Stupak was ready to cave. "Obviously they don’t know me," Stupak said in an interview this afternoon with THE WEEKLY STANDARD. "If I didn’t" cave in November, "why would I do it now after all the crap I’ve been through?"

[...]

Stupak affirmed that he will not settle for an agreement to pass the bill now and fix the bill's problems on abortion later: "If they say 'we’ll give you a letter saying we'll take care of this later,' that’s not acceptable because later never comes."

Stupak highlighted other problems with the bill: The president's proposal has not been translated into legislative language and it still leaves some special deals in place. "If you look at the President’s proposal," Stupak said, "it says that the Cornhusker agreement is out, but the Louisiana Purchase is in."

Feel the Nomentum, Bart!

UPDATE: And there's this little gem buried in a Daily Caller report:

Rangel, in an interview after the Democratic caucus meeting, said the abortion issue “didn’t come up.”

“Nothing’s going to be changed,” Rangel said. “There’s no room to change it. Not now.”

Pelosi, a California Democrat, continued to send the message that abortion should not be such a prominent issue in the haggling over getting health care reform passed.

“We’re going to have a bill. It’s about health care,” she said.

Translation: there will be no deal.

Rangel: "Nothing is Going to Be Changed"&bodytext=And he says he won't agree to a promise now for action later. Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak said yesterday at a townhall in his home state, "I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago" that a deal could be...&topic=world_news"> posted by Gabriel Malor at 09:15 AM

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