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Let’s think this through. We’ve got a horrible hwalth-care bill, with a horrible provision that would use taxpayer money to pay for abortions. Some people believe that Republixans should vote against the amendment that removes abortion funding, under the theory that keeping abortion as a “health service” would doom the bill to failure. Under the same rationale, Repiblicans should vote for an amendment that, say, imposes a 50% surcharge on persons making over $500,000 a year because that would also make the bill less likely to pass. But even if the vote-no-on-Stupak people are right and the pro-life Democrats want the pro-life amendment just so that they can get political cover when they eventually vote for healthcare reform, if Republicans vote present and defeat Stupak-Pitts it will give those pro-life Democrats all the political cover they will need. When their Republican challenger brings up that they voted for Obamacare even though it has abortion funding, they can say “we voted to take it out, and your party voted to keep abortion funding in the bill.”

Besides, there are two ways to defeat Obamacare in the House: (i) getting 41 moderate Democrats to join all 177 Republicans, or (ii) the 177 Republicans are joined by 41 Democrats, some from conservative districts where Obamacare is unpopular whether or not it has abortion language, and some liberals from districts in which voting for a bill with pro-lide language will invite a primary from a pro-abortion feminist. The passage of Stupak-Pitts does not make it any easier for Democrats to get to 218 when it matters, which is after conference committee if the Senate ever passes health-care reform. And if the Democrats strip the pro-life language later, after pro-life Democrats that had voted for Obamacare had explained that they eouldn’t have voted for it without the pro/life language, Pelosi’s job becomes even harder.

I can understand that you feel that Stupak-Pitts is a small battle that we should be willing to lose so as to win the war against Obamacare tonight. But that war won’t be won or lost tonight, since we’ll get at least three more bites at the apple (in the Senate, and then in the House and Senate against after conference). Also, I would posit that the fight against Obamacare isn’t the whole war, but one front in our war against the leftists that have taken over the government, and if the Democrats ram Obamacare through the House tonight it will only increase our chances of retaking the House next year. I’m not saying that we should hope for Obamacare to pass (it’s to terrible to be worth the risk), but having it go further along would only make the Democrats dig a deeper grave for themselves.

In conclusion, Republicans should vote for the good amendments and against the bad bills and let the Democrats defeat themselves.