Critical Vote On Health Care Passes Senate
Officially, the Senate has not passed health care reform. Unofficially, the fight is over for this round. Senate Democrats overcame a filibuster by a party-line vote of 60-40, including the two independent senators who caucus with the Democrats.
As I said, it’s not officially over; the above vote merely provided official “cloture.” However, it is merely window dressing to get the bill passed by Christmas Eve, which seems very likely now.
The Heritage Foundation outlines what this bill will do to America’s budget, the unborn and taxes. In short, it’s a bad bill, which we already knew. However, there is still hope. The Senate and House bills must be compromised in conference- where the two chambers make two bills into one- and then voted on again in each chamber separately. The two biggest issues, as far as I see, that could shut down this reform effort are abortion and the public option. The House bill includes the latter, the Senate one does not. The Senate bill, however, allows public funds to be used for abortion and the House one does not. I hope Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) holds strong on his abortion language and kills the bill. A pro-life amendment would help the health care bill that finally passes (if one does) not fund the murder of the unborn.
Fox News has a very revealing analysis about where various monies went to various senators in order to bribe them votes for the cloture vote. As Fox notes in the article, uncertain votes were brought in line as a direct result of how the Senate leadership decided to use our money.
Support These Democrats
I posted about President Obama’s abortion sleight-of-hand yesterday, and one commenter wanted to know who the Democrats were that challenged the president and Speaker Pelosi in a letter about abortion funding in any health care reform bills. The list can be found here, along with the letter to Speaker Pelosi.
Please take the time to contact the offices of these Representatives and offer your support for their admirable efforts. Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) has led the charge and has done a great job thus far, even acknowledging his willingness to lose his seat by opposing government-supported abortion.
Democrats Lied- Kids May Die
According to LifeNews.com, pro-life Democrats and Republicans are unlikely to get a chance to vote on portions of the House bill currently being worked?on by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that will create a new method of funding. According to the Associated Press: “The main point of contention [among pro-life Democrats and pro-choice Democrats]?is the proposed new federal subsidies that would help lower-income people purchase health care coverage from private plans ? and potentially from a new government-sponsored plan ? within a new purchasing exchange.” Later in the article: “But the Democrats’ health overhaul bill would create a new stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions….[Representative Bart] Stupak [D-Michigan]?says language specifying that someone obtaining an abortion must use her own money, not federal money from the subsidies, doesn’t go far enough because it’s impossible to clearly segregate funds in that way.”
I guess Nancy Pelosi and other pro-choice (read: pro-abortion) Democrats don’t get it- without a stipulation against abortions in the final health care bill coming out of the House, organizations like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops can’t support their bill.?Furthermore, representatives who would otherwise like to see more government involvement in health care but are against killing children?may not vote for the bill.?29 Democrats joined Stupak in sending a letter to Pelosi, and given how many Blue Dogs are joining with Republicans with regards to concerns over the cost of the bill and the public option…keeping abortion in the bill may just kill the House version of health care reform.
(One addendum: if President Obama really wants to be the “post-partisan” president he talked about on the campaign trail, and wants to find the “middle ground” on abortion as he said at Notre Dame…he could always pressure Pelosi and Co. into accepting Stupak’s bill. Then it would probably give the House the votes it needs to pass a health reform bill. The question, however, is will the president do that, or will he stick to his ideological belief that any unborn child is worth killing?)
