Finally there seems to be a strategy in the Senate. Making a conference report impossible and this are great moves.

Finally, the GOP is playing hardball.

I firmly believe that social conservatives will see the big-picture of what Republicans are doing by blocking this route.

If the government takes over health-care, there will eventually be publicly funded abortions. Period. The best way to prevent this is to kill ObamaCare by any means possible.

Which is why the time frame he talks about is the “end of year”. He has also dismissed the possibility of side-bar letters and legislation and said that it needs to be “one bill”.

Stupak’s folly (I assume he is sincere) is in thinking that the Senate is capable of passing a fresh bill given that the Reconciliation option wouldn’t be available at that point.

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/video?id=7319806&pid=7319043

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/video?id=7320350

In practice, I worry that the Stupak 12 are going to use this as cover to go ahead and vote for the bill like they wanted to all along (“We were ready to strip abortion funding, and the big, bad GOP stopped us”). I suspect they could pretty easily blame this on the Republicans.

The GOP seems to be definitely going all in. Should we take this to mean that this vote does indeed hinge on Stupak and friends?

House passes the Senate bill? If it does, can’t Obama just sign the already passed bill, without reconcilliation?
The dems can vote for the bill and blame Republicans for not removing abortion funding.

JSobieski, I get your point but I just can’t see Stupak voting for the Senate bill in exchange some vague promise of making the Hyde amendment permanent months down the road. In Stupak’s words: “[W]hy would I do it now after all the crap I’ve been through?” Hot Air has an article on Stupak’s latest comments.

Republicans are the ones who block an effort to strip abortion funding from the health care bill. I’m sure that’ll go over well with the voters. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve been wrong at every turn so far on the abortion issue in health care reform and I think you’re wrong now, too.

Why not we forget the Republicans because, as much as you might be loathe to admit it, Republicans have absolutely nothing to say about what’s going to happen now. Nothing. They can bitch, they can stonewall, they can posture all they want, but if the Dems want to pass this thing it will pass. Let’s come alongside the Dems who are trying to fight the bill, shall we. Like Bart Stupak and his group. Instead we’re looking for ways to “paint them into a corner?” I just don’t understand that, frankly.

Diana DeGette (D-CO) said she had 40 House Democrats who would vote against any bill with his amendment.

For much the same reason as the senate, I don’t expect the House Republicans would sign on either.

This is what it will take. No matter what it is, we should oppose every step they take. If they want this, they are going to have to burn up a lot of political capital, and we should make them pay for it.

http://neoavatara.com/blog/?p=10270

from reconciliation (or whatever the insane decide to name it) bill does make it more a question of starting over or stopping for the time being. In that Stupak may be leaning that way also, I say go for it.

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Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

Grrrrrr why can’t it be a Republican senator, loud and proud? Or at least on background.

I’ll start celebrating when it’s more than just an anonymous aide.

Thanks for pushing the discussion, though, Erick.

Let’s assume Stupak gives his vote for ObamaCare on the promise of a fix in reconciliation. Republicans (or the parliamentarian) defeat the fix. We loses right?

Nope. He goes back to his supporters as the jilted lover. He tried, Pelosi lied.

In 9 months, Republicans take back the House and gain seats in the Senate.

Republicans (and a handful of pro-life Democrats) amend a must-pass bill with language to de-fund abortions and the President signs it unceremoniously.

Obama gets his win. Stupak gets his win knowing that Republicans will never tolerate federally funded abortions.

He’ll vote for the bill. It’s a no lose proposition for him. However, it’s smart to posture strongly to get the best deal.

In terms of sheer Machiavellianism, I always protested the R’s should not have helped the Stupak language in the House bill

They were the ones who let it pass, which IMHO was the only reason the House HCR bill could get to 218

Maybe they thought putting Stupak’s language in it would eventually kill the bill, as it appears may (hopefully) still happen?

I hope they hold firm on this for the reasons outlined above– I was worried they’d get trapped into voting for it and actually ease any reconciliation process along

The HotAir article today on Stupak’s newest statements gives me a little more hope at least
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/03/09/stupak-i-havent-caved-on-obamacare-and-i-wont-agree-to-a-future-abortion-bill/

And from a recent excellent analysis in Politico, it pretty much lays out that both sides are pretty convinced there is no way to get an abortion fix through reconciliation anyway, it would have to be a whole new bill needing 60 in the Senate
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34104.html

I’m starting to agree this is all kabuki to give cover from the nutroots before the let the bill whimper and die

Yesterday, I received tweets about how “Obama gives Planned Parenthood (PP) 10 million dollars”.

This government-gone-FERAL IS already funding murder of America’s children, through EVERY DOLLAR (i.e. $5XX MILLION in the last two years to PP)

The Supreme Court of the United States needs to reverse the evil decision of 1973, which has “legalized” the SLAUGHTER of upwards of FIFTY MILLION HUMAN BEINGS.

http://www.MicahPeak.org

Very few people have an understanding of how insurance companies work. Theoretically there are “uninsured” people in the USA, but in actuality, everyone’s health care is paid for or the hospitals would have to close their doors! The very poor have Medicaid which is the government health insurance and the illegal aliens use it by having an anchor baby who is a US citizen at birth. The baby is then used to qualify for welfare benefits and Medicaid and it is automatically granted to underage US citizens. The illegal aliens along with those who choose not to buy health insurance are covered by what is known as “cost shifting”.

Cost shifting is the process by which hospital bill the insurance of covered people for the cost of their care AND THE CARE OF THE UNINSURED. Do you really think that two aspirin cost the hospital $30 to provide? Of course not!! The $30 pays for the aspirin and the care of the uninsured. The hospitals shift the cost of the care of the uninsured onto the bills of those of us who DO have insurance—if they didn’t do this, they would have to close their doors since they are legally required to provide care for any sick person or emergency. NO ONE in America is denied health care because of inability to pay because they either have Medicaid, health insurance or the cost of the care is shifted to the insured. It’s been going on forever and worst of all, the illegal aliens know that they cannot be denied care in an EMERGENCY ROOM so they use ERs as their primary physician which is horrendously expensive. Hospitals routinely deny that they are shifting the cost to the insured people, but they are. Just from a business standpoint, they MUST in order to remain open and provide care—and Medicaid is also billed through cost shifting.

To bring down costs, we need to change the incentives that govern spending:
* Right now, $5 out of every $6 of health-care spending is paid for by someone other than the person receiving care — insurance companies, employers, or the government.
* Individuals are insulated from the reality of what their decisions cost.
* This breeds overutilization of low-value health care and runaway spending.

To reduce the growth of costs, individuals must take greater responsibility for their health care, and health insurers and health care providers must face the competitive forces of the market. Three policy changes will go a long way to achieving these objectives:
* Eliminate the tax code’s bias that favors health insurance over out-of-pocket spending.
* Remove state-government barriers to purchasing and providing health services.
* Reform medical malpractice laws.

I was just talking to my wife about this the other day! Yes teher are some issues that can be a deal breaker for me when voting. I personally can NOT vote for someone who takes a Pro-Abortion (sorry! pro-CHOICE) or an ant-gun postion.

That being said some groups like the SBA have been encouraging us to contact our representatives and tell them that ANY health care reform must be voted down if it doesn’t have the Stupak wording in it…..

Even as a Pro-Lifer, I know this is wrong…It shouldn’t be voted for no matter WHAT!!!

The current “reform” package is a liberty and economy killing powergrab. The lives that may be lost (through abortion expansion and denial of services to the aged or terminally ill) are the literal killings that can be added to the figurative ones.