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Democratic Dissenters
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| Contributor | particleman |
| Last Edited | particleman Sep 16, 2009 11:00pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | John McCormack |
| Media | Weekly News Magazine - Weekly Standard, The |
| News Date | Thursday, September 17, 2009 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Representative Bart Stupak isn't the type to yell "You lie!" while the president is addressing a joint session of Congress. But according to the soft-spoken pro-life Michigan Democrat, Barack Obama isn't telling the full truth when he says, as he did last Wednesday night, "no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions" in the congressional health care plan.
"There certainly is public funding for abortion" in the House bill, Stupak told me the day after Obama's speech. The bill would allow both the public health insurance plan and federally subsidized private plans to cover elective abortions. Stupak has asked repeatedly for a meeting--or even a few minutes on the phone--with Obama to clear up any misunderstanding, but the White House hasn't granted his requests. "I just jumped Rahm Emanuel again this morning" to ask for a meeting, Stupak said Thursday.
The White House might want to reconsider its cold shoulder, because Stupak may have enough votes to keep the health care bill from making it to the floor of the House. Stupak says that if Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee chairman Louise Slaughter do not allow an up-or-down vote on his amendment to explicitly ban coverage for elective abortions in the bill, he's going to lead a coalition of Democrats to vote with the Republicans "to try to take down the rule." That would keep the bill from moving out of the committee to the floor.
Stupak has worked the issue diligently and is convinced that he has almost 40 Democrats willing
to vote against the rule. Combined with united Republican opposition, and a defection or two from the fiscally conservative "blue dog" Democratic caucus, that would be enough votes to block the bill.
So far, the Democratic leadership isn't promising Stupak an up-or-down vote on his amendment. Slaughter won't commit to allowing a vote, and Nancy Pelosi was similarly noncommittal when asked last Thursday. Abortion funding is already "out of the health care bill," she told me.
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