Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak has officially weighed in on the President’s new and improved health reform plan and he’s not happy with its implicit mechanism for federal abortion funding:
Unfortunately, the President’s proposal encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion. The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable.
If you thought Obamacare’s death had been ”greatly exaggerated,” this should convince you it’s a goner. That’s what Michael E. Hammond meant yesterday when he wrote:
You cannot get the bill through the House without “fixing� abortion, and you cannot do abortion on reconciliation in the Senate.
There is simply no way to get Obamacare done without Stupak and his fellow anti-abortion Democrats. And, unlike Ben Nelson,  Mary Landrieu, et al, Stupak cannot be bought or bullied.
The thing is dead. Former Bush economist Keith Hennessey theorizes (via HA) that the WH and congressional Dems are in the midst of an elaborate blame-shifting dance because they know it’s over:
It is possible that we are witnessing uncoordinated Democratic leaders each pursuing their own exit strategy in anticipation of legislative failure.
All of the sound and fury we’re getting from the Dems about the “nuclear option,” even though that dog obviously won’t hunt, suggests to me that Hennessey is correct.
Post a Comment