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Senior Democrat is 'confident' Stupak amendment will be stripped
The Hill ^ | 11/09/09 | Michael O'Brien

Posted on 11/09/2009 9:59:46 AM PST by MissesBush

A House Democrat leader said Monday she's “confident” controversial language on abortion will be stripped from a final healthcare bill.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the Democrats’ chief deputy whip in the House, said that she and other pro-abortion rights lawmakers would work to strip the amendment included in the House health bill that bars federal funding from going to subsidize abortions.

“I am confident that when it comes back from the conference committee that that language won't be there,” Wasserman Schultz said during an appearance on MSNBC. “And I think we're all going to be working very hard, particularly the pro-choice members, to make sure that's the case.”

The amendment, offered by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), won the support of Republicans and dozens of centrist Democrats in the House, but revealed a deep divide in the Democratic caucus over abortion.

Sixty-four Democrats voted for Stupak’s amendment, without which the House healthcare bill would not have won final passage in a 220-215 vote.

Stupak’s language not only prohibits abortion coverage in the public insurance option included in the House bill. It would also prevent private plans from offering coverage for abortion services if they accepts people who are receiving government subsidies.

Allowing the vote represented a major concession by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Stupak and other pro-life Democrats who had threatened to oppose the bill. But it came at the cost of angering liberals in the Democratic conference.

Abortion-rights supporters called it a “de facto” abortion ban and mounted an intense but unsuccessful lobbying campaign against it.

The conference between the House and Senate bills after the upper chamber passes its bill will present an opportunity to strip the Stupak amendment, and liberal Democrats have vowed to work hard to get rid of that language during that stage of the legislation.

“It was extremely painful for me to feel compelled to vote for a bill that contained that kind of restriction on a woman's ability to make her own reproductive choices,” Wasserman Schultz said.

Republicans over the weekend signaled they’d seek similar language in the Senate bill, where several centrist. Democrats are already wavering over the bill.

It’s not clear how the abortion debate could impact a final vote in the House on the healthcare bill, but it could be difficult for many of the centrists who supported Stupak’s amendment to vote for a healthcare bill that did not include his language.

In addition, the only Republican vote for the legislation; Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-La.) said the Stupak amendment cleared the way for him to support the legislation.

But it’s also possible liberals could drop their support for the bill if the language is not changed.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 111th; democrats; healthcarereform; liberalfascism; obamacare; prolife; stupakamendment; wassermanschultz
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There's no honor among thieves. Dems got this atrocity passed only by including the Stupak amendment. I'm sure the plan all along by Pelosi and her mafia was to get this thing passed then renege on the promises it took to get it passed. Wasserman is a Pelosi protege. If she's making this threat it's coming straight from Pelosi's hideous maw. So to the Lap Dog, whoops, sorry, Blue Dog Democrats who voted for PelosiCare, take note your party's disgusting leadership is already plotting to screw you over. These people are utter evil.
1 posted on 11/09/2009 9:59:47 AM PST by MissesBush
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To: MissesBush

If they do that I hope Cao and the Democrats who voted Yay on the strength of that exclusion should punish them severely on any future votes ... on anything.


2 posted on 11/09/2009 10:04:14 AM PST by Lorianne
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To: MissesBush

Of course it will be. That’s what Pelousy had planned all along.


3 posted on 11/09/2009 10:04:39 AM PST by Dick Bachert ('08 WASN'T AN ELECTION. IT WAS AN INFESTATION. FUMIGATION HAS ALREADY BEGUN!)
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To: MissesBush
..to Boener's credit he repeatedly asked the big Democrat players to guarantee that the Stupak language would be protected in conference--no way

This tells me that Stupak, Ellison and the rest are merely looking for a pro-life fig leaf to hide behind come election time--they KNOW that their leadership will kill it in time...

4 posted on 11/09/2009 10:05:07 AM PST by WalterSkinner ( In Memory of My Father--WWII Vet and Patriot 1926-2007)
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To: MissesBush

This whole thing is so revolting


5 posted on 11/09/2009 10:07:06 AM PST by RaiderRose (Obama has cured my husband's political apathy.)
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To: MissesBush
Come Judgment Day... the line of dims (the one with the elevator to hell) will circle the Earth 5000 times.

LLS

6 posted on 11/09/2009 10:10:10 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (hussama will never be my president... NEVER!)
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To: MissesBush
“It was extremely painful for me to feel compelled to vote for a bill that contained that kind of restriction on a woman's ability to make her own reproductive choices,” Wasserman Schultz said.

What a crock! The amendment doesnt restrict anyone from making her own choices. It just requires that she pay for that choice herself.

7 posted on 11/09/2009 10:11:00 AM PST by freespirited (Liberals are only liberal about sex & drugs. Otherwise, they want to control your life. --DHorowitz)
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To: MissesBush
Image and video hosting by TinyPic
8 posted on 11/09/2009 10:13:19 AM PST by pillut48 (CJ in TX --"God help us all, and God help America!!" --my new mantra for the next 4 years)
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To: Lorianne
"If they do that I hope Cao and the Democrats who voted Yay on the strength of that exclusion should punish them severely on any future votes ... on anything."

Everyone should remember that this bill will come back to the House floor for a final vote after it leaves the conference committee. So, for people like Cao and Stupak who say their pro-life voters, this will be their opportunity to vote nay on the bill if the amendment has actually been stripped in conference.

The Rats don't have a lot of breathing room. Would this amendment cost them 7 votes? I don't know.

9 posted on 11/09/2009 10:14:53 AM PST by OldDeckHand (Obamacare - So bad, even Joe Lieberman isn't going to vote for it.)
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To: MissesBush
NAnZI Pelosi and her sisters in the dem party will stop at nothing, just like hitler.
10 posted on 11/09/2009 10:16:23 AM PST by tioga
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To: MissesBush

So the question is, if the Stupak amendment is stripped out of a final bill, will Stupak and his group vote for the final bill? Popular logic would conclude that they would have to vote against the final bill, which would defeat it. But at this time we seem to be in a surreal world of deception, manipulation, blackmail, threats, and outright lies dominating the political system in Washington. So who knows what will happen. We need 50% turnover in the House in 2010 to flush out the vermin and renew the constitutional system that our Founding Fathers gave us.


11 posted on 11/09/2009 10:19:21 AM PST by your local physicist (If the Canadians and Brazilians can drill for oil off their Atlantic coast, why can't we?)
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To: MissesBush

It doesn’t matter if the medical bill includes “language” about abortion or if it doesn’t.

The bill itself is blatantly unconstitutional, and in combination with the carbon legislation represents a complete power grab, a coup d’etat.

The abortion elements can be added in anytime after its passed. Once you’ve lost the constitution there is no barrier to anything anyone has the power to do.

We are witnessing a coup being perpetrated by the government against the constitutional order, and we watch it like we’re watching a football game.


12 posted on 11/09/2009 10:19:42 AM PST by marron
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To: MissesBush
From a WaPo article:

Although House liberals voted for the bill with the amendment to keep the process moving forward, Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) said she has collected more than 40 signatures from House Democrats vowing to oppose any final bill that includes the amendment -- enough to block passage.

"There's going to be a firestorm here," DeGette said. "Women are going to realize that a Democratic-controlled House has passed legislation that would prohibit women paying for abortions with their own funds. . . . We're not going to let this into law."

13 posted on 11/09/2009 10:20:09 AM PST by randita (Chains you can bereave in.)
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To: OldDeckHand

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2382250/posts

Looks like they’ll lose even more votes if they don’t strip the Stupak amemdment. No win situation ...


14 posted on 11/09/2009 10:20:12 AM PST by Lorianne
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To: OldDeckHand
The Rats don't have a lot of breathing room. Would this amendment cost them 7 votes? I don't know.

Actually, you need to only sway 3 votes to go from 220-215 to 217-218, killing Ponzi-losi's wet dream. And it sounds like Stupak and Cao would reverse course if the amendment is removed or gutted. So, the count is magic number is down to 1, if my math is correct.

15 posted on 11/09/2009 10:20:12 AM PST by ssaftler (Borg Queen Obama: Resistance is futile!)
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To: ssaftler; Lorianne
"Actually, you need to only sway 3 votes to go from 220-215"

For some reason I was thinking that the Dems had 225 votes. You're right, with 220, they only need lose 3 votes.

Hopefully, this will put Pelosi in an untenable and unwinnable position with both the leftists and the less-leftists of her party.

16 posted on 11/09/2009 10:24:47 AM PST by OldDeckHand (Obamacare - So bad, even Joe Lieberman isn't going to vote for it.)
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To: OldDeckHand
The Rats don't have a lot of breathing room. Would this amendment cost them 7 votes? I don't know.

It only needs to cost them 3 votes to lead to a defeat. If three "yes" votes become "no" votes, it would be 218-217 to defeat the bill. Cao almost certainly would be one when the abortion language is stripped out, so two more D's would need to vote "no".

17 posted on 11/09/2009 10:30:08 AM PST by Major Matt Mason (The DemocRat Party = Enemies of Freedom.)
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To: randita
House has passed legislation that would prohibit women paying for abortions with their own funds

What is this dumb broad talking about? The amendment prevents the use of FEDERAL dollars from subsidizing abortions, not the use of anyone's private resources. Do these DemoCraps even know how to tell the truth anymore?

18 posted on 11/09/2009 10:39:52 AM PST by MissesBush
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To: MissesBush

Stupak=STUPIDPak

What idiot’s believed that this amendment was anything but cover for Dems in conservative districts.

Mark my words. The abortion issue will be the death of this country.


19 posted on 11/09/2009 11:11:40 AM PST by A Strict Constructionist (How long before we are forced to refresh the Tree of Liberty?)
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To: MissesBush

Nancy Pelosi has just rammed the most anti-human bill yet through that House of Whores. She is a tyrant just like every other tyrant the human race has produced.


20 posted on 11/09/2009 11:18:06 AM PST by MichiganConservative (Abolish the IRS, income tax, the 16th amendment and the Federal Reserve. Replace them with nothing.)
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