Health Care BS

Back when Bart Stupak’s cadre of anti-abortion Democrats emerged as a stumbling block for Obamacare, one HCBS commenter admonished me to remember that “he IS a Democrat.”

I was reminded of that on Monday when Stupak began making noises like he was preparing to make a deal with the White House and Pelosi that would permit abortion funding in the final “reform” bill. 

I’m more optimistic than I was a week ago … is there some language that we can agree on that hits both points - we don’t restrict, we don’t expand abortion rights? I think we can get there.

Apparently, however, he got some flak over that statement, so now he has “clarified” his position. He now claims that he has made no deal and that he won’t agree to any process that depends on a promise to “fix” the abortion language later:

Everyone’s going around saying there’s a compromise—there’s no such thing … If I didn’t cave in November, why would I do it now after all the crap I’ve been through?

Hmm … let’s see … money, power, special perks perhaps? Those are the things for which “principled” Democrats usually sell out their constituents. We’ll soon find out if Stupak is any different than Ben Nelson and the rest of the roundheels of the Democratic Party.