Tag: Healthcare

28Furthermore, since they  did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved  mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with  every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of  envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are  gossips, 30slanderers,  God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they  disobey their parents; 31they  are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know  God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they  not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who  practice them. - Romans 1 (NIV)

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."

..."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."

A recent CNS news interview reveals Stupak has been told to essentially shut up until the deal is done.

"They think I shouldn't be expressing my views on this bill until they get a chance to try to sell me the language," Stupak told CNSNews.com in an interview on Tuesday. "Well, I don't need anyone to sell me the language. I can read it. I've seen it. I've worked with it. I know what it says. I don't need to have a conference with the White House. I have the legislation in front of me here."

Stupak (D-MI) has been making it clear that he would not vote for the healthcare bill if it included federally funded abortion.  He and Rep. Ellsworth (D-IN) have introduced an amendment to the bill that:

    * Explicitly prevents all federal tax dollars from being used to provide abortions in the public option;
    * Prohibits any funds from the US Treasury from paying for abortion services in any of the plans purchased through the proposed Health Insurance Exchange-private or public;
    * Establishes clear, strict rules for separating public funds from the premiums of private individuals (ensuring that no public funds  are ever used to pay for an abortion in any health plan offered on the Health Insurance Exchange);
    * Guarantees every American participating in the Health Insurance Exchange will always have access to a pro-life insurance option;
    * Expands conscience protections to prevent the government from discriminating against pro-life health insurance plans.  (Taken from Ellsworth's website.)

But, taking to the floor this afternoon, Stupak signaled that he would indeed vote for the bill, and continued to encourage his Democrat friends to support his amendment.

The bottom line is, Stupak sees nothing wrong with the government takeover of healthcare.

I'm sorry to say that I saw this one coming miles away and months ago. I wrote exactly of this very thing earlier this year. I was tipped off to this video over at The Foundry by several emails today and sure enough, here is Stupak admitting that he will vote for nationalizing the healthcare system including taxpayer funded abortions:

If everything I want [is] in the final bill, I like everything in the bill except you have public funding for abortion, and we had a chance to run our amendment and we lost. OK, I voted my conscience, stayed true to my principles, stayed true to the beliefs of this district, could I vote for healthcare? Yes I still could. -Bart Stupak

A 27 page report outlining cost and benefit of the Baucus plan (with NO public option)is now available. (click on the image below to download, and grab the closest barf bag.)