Posted on 03/21/2010 10:07:07 AM PDT by LdSentinal
Per MSNBC, Bart Stupak has agreed to language in an executive order that would satisfy his block. He had called a press conference at 12:30, but has now canceled it. The seven Democrats left in his block will vote “yes.”
Details of what the order will contain are not known. Yesterday the Washington Post said that “it is likely at the very least to restate Obama’s commitment to upholding the Hyde Amendment.”
Right now, the Hyde Amendment has to be renewed each year in the Appropriations bill. Having a Democratic President state it in the form of an Executive Order would be quite a coup for anti-abortion activists.
But Stupak has been after more than just Hyde. The health care bill contains $10 billion for Bernie Sanders’ community clinics, which would begin immediately rather than waiting until 2014. Planned Parenthood had pledged their support for the bill with the knowledge that much of that money would be going to their clinics, but would not be used for abortion services. However Stupak has pursuing the agenda of American’s United for Life, who want a commitment that no money go toward Planned Parenthood clinics regardless of what it is used for.
It’s possible that the Stupak block were just looking for a graceful way out, an excuse to drop their fight and vote for the bill without looking to the anti-abortion community that they just gave in to political pressure. But until the language of the executive order is released publicly, nobody will know.
Rep. Diana DeGette agreed to support the executive order yesterday on behalf of the pro-choice caucus. DeGette has still not released the 41 names of those who signed her letter saying they “would not vote for a conference report that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law,” even though the language in the Senate bill most certainly does that.
Imagine what today would look like if progressives in the House had held their ground like the unions or the anti-abortion Democrats. As Armando notes, “It actually stands as a testament to the ineptitude of progressives. Fighting for a very popular initiative, they still could not muster a bargaining strategy that could work.”
Join us at 2pm today when debate iof the bill will begin in the House. It will proceed for 2 hours and then be stopped for the vote. After the House votes on the Senate bill, there will immediately be a vote on the reconciliation “fix.” We’ll be live blogging.
I think that if I were to draw a flow chart for that, it would come out looking like Celtic knot
The Stupak plan has worked brilliantly. He has made himself very well know as a “pro-life” democrat bulwark. Once gaining that noteriety, he has sold out to the party with a fine cover.
The people are sluts — whore is too nice a word, whores get real pay.
You know KC, I normally agree with you. This time I really REALLY agree with you. We are not ones to normally name call but if the shoe fits.
If he has gone to the dark side because he trusts this fix, then he is the dumbest guy in congress
Thanks for granting me my moment of inteperance. I misstyped “These people” and typed “The people...” but I guess my feelings were obvious. I have been over on the live thread and watching CSPAN.
I better go to the pharmacy and get my blood pressure bill refill.
You came through loud and clear. Please keep that pressure under control...we need you!
Yellow Rose of Texas says hi. We’re ranting on the phone as I type.
Yellow Rose of Texas says hi. We’re ranting on the phone as I type.
Krauthammer predicted this a month ago. He said that the democrat hold-outs would cave in, basically because that’s what democrats do. I never really had any doubt that he was correct. That IS what democrats do.
It’s also what Rinos do. It is what makes Romney so dangerous.
I guarantee you that if a (God forbid) President Romney had a supermajority in both houses and a bill to sign revoking national health care that he would NOT sign it.
No matter what anyone says at this point, I believe the only way to turn this back is to have the Supreme Court declare it unconstitutional. Since they didn’t use reconciliation, the only constitutional argument they have is the forcing of Americans to buy something.
One democrat pointed out last night that the commerce clause has already been used to force us to buy things. I don’t know what those things are. Does anyone have any idea?
Seatbelts? Helmets? Car insurance? I don’t think so. I think those are all state.
What?
You lawyers: what is the argument regarding unconstitutionality? Who has standing to advance it? How STRONG of an agument is it?
The same question occurred to me. How did we get into the current situation where it's customary for employers to offer health insurance? Wasn't there some Federal mandate for employers of a certain workforce size either to offer it or pay a tax? This isn't quite the same because the commerce clause can be used here to involve the employers because their businesses are "deemed" to touch interstate commerce. Also the employee can choose to skip the insurance without any penalty.
Saudi Arabia.
Wouldn’t make sense for them to want to diminish the USA. After all who’s going to buy their oil?
>> America.....was a great idea while it lasted.
While I understand the despair, I want to underscore that you don’t speak for me.
Health insurance used to be bait offered to good employees to either hire on with a particular company or to stay with their company. It was a recruiting and retention tool.
If you think about it, there’s absolutely no more logical reason why an employer should have to pay for healthcare for an employee any more than an employer would have to buy an employee a company car.
It became a common “benefit”, and somehow over time people began to think that employers were obligated to provide a health plan.
The truth is that employers always should have been finding ways to financially reward employees rather than offering benefit packages. With that higher salary, they would have then had the option to buy their own health insurance or whatever they felt was more important to them.
I’ve no doubt that huge pools of health insurance money resulted in a cycle of health cost increases. Providers saw the huge pile of money and began raising rates to make sure it all got spent since it was there anyway. That made insurance companies raise their rates that made providers raise their rates that made insurance..... vicious cycle.
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