The latest talking point spin from Democrats is, “Federal Dollars are not currently used to pay for abortions.  That will not change.  This legislation will not fund abortions.”  I must have heard this spin from at least 8 -10 Democrats over the last few days.  Let’s take a closer look at it.

What they are saying is very Clintonian (what the definition of “is” is).  Technically correct.  The Hyde amendment prohibits Federal money from being paid to reimburse doctors who perform abortions.  This is a limited application, but one that is accepted by a wide majority of the public.  The current health care legislation would NOT provide money directly to doctors that perform abortions.  It instead provides taxpayer money directly to insurance companies who provide subsidized insurance plans WITH abortion coverage to individuals who select them.  In other words, taxpayers are funding abortions, not directly, but through third parties.

The correct analogy to use is: 1) If I shoot someone, it’s murder; 2) if I pay someone else to shoot that person, it’s still murder plus conspiracy to commit murder.  It’s the same with this Clintonian parsing of what constitutes taxpayer funded abortions.  Bart Stupak obviously understands this.  I think it’s likely that many of the others who originally supported him in his opposition to taxpayer funded abortions are squishy on this and will end up voting for this bill.  After all, they are Democrats.

Bart Stupak just had a revelation. And it’s a disturbing one.

Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is chagrined. “They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That’s their strategy now. The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate’s health-care bill without us. At this point, there is no doubt that they’ve been able to peel off one or two of my twelve. And even if they don’t have the votes, it’s been made clear to us that they won’t insert our language on the abortion issue.”…

What are Democratic leaders saying? “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing,” Stupak says. “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.”

If Obamacare passes, Stupak says, it could signal the end of any meaningful role for pro-life Democrats within their own party. “It would be very, very hard for someone who is a right-to-life Democrat to run for office,” he says. “I won’t leave the party. I’m more comfortable here and still believe in a role within it for the right-to-life cause, but this bill will make being a pro-life Democrat much more difficult. They don’t even want to debate this issue. We’ll probably have to wait until the Republicans take back the majority to fix this.”

We knew this. For all their talk of pro-choice, the far left is actually pro-abortion. It’s about an agenda to them, not about life. And remember, not too long ago Senator Feinstein said it was “morally correct” to fund abortion. This just exposes the face underneath the mask a bit more. Now, it isn’t just about funding abortion, but using it as a cost-saving tool. Bart Stupak is realizing that now — in a moment of division with his party, he had some clarity. He is a Democrat insider and he sees this chilling reality in his own Caucus.

Read More →

For the second time in 4 months, the forces of Obamacare have failed to bend the “Stupak 12″ to their will.  The End Game for Obamacare is finally approaching.

The AP reports:

Top House Democrats said they have given up trying to win over some conservative Democrats demanding that the bill strictly bar federal aid for abortion. That means they likely will have to win converts from among 39 House Democrats who voted against the House’s initial health bill in November.

This shows how “serious” Pelosi et al were about addressing Stupak’s concerns, and how un-Nelson-like the House holdouts on this issue have been.  Nelson caved in days, and the “discussions” with Stupak lasted what—5 minutes?

I wouldn’t call Stupak “conservative” in any way (he supports a “public option”) and for the most part, “Blue Dog” status is more mythological than unicorns and dragons.  However, on the issue of abortion funding, there is good reason to conclude that there is actually some pro-life integrity on the Democrat side in the House, and that integrity should be commended.  Does this surprise me?  Yes, but what a pleasant surprise.

The irony that abortion funding will be the final torpedo in comprehensive health reform is simply delicious.  The Hyde Amendment has been the law of the land for years, but the inability of democrats to continue to live under the principle of the Hydge Amendment will in the end, the death knell for their generational desire for HCR.

TIme to remain vigilent, but prepare for celebration (i.e. time to stock up on some extra adult beverages)!

Pro-Life Democrats appear ready to stop the Health Care Takeover, according to Fox News:

The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as seven anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed.

Seven new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.

Foremost among the seven new no votes is Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., whose anti-abortion amendment to the House version of the legislation got the bill passed in that chamber last year.

The House bill passed last year by a 220-215 vote.  With four House seats vacant, the new majority level is 216.  Losing seven to twelve “Yes” votes for the bill effectively kills the legislation as it stands.

Read More →

The following quote below is from Dr. Hunter’s blog at Social Security Institute. If Republicans refuse to vote strategically as indicated in the referenced post, say goodbye to electoral gains for the GOP in November. A vote for any Stupak language effectively ushers in the end of any budding alliance between Tea Parties and the GOP. In short, lean and lean hard on the GOP to think carefully about any vote that expedites the passage of ObamaCare. Any vote for strengthening anti-abortion language in the healthcare bill is a vote for ObamaCare. To the point, anything that assists in the passage of ObamaCare is a tacit approval of ObamaCare. Excuses will not extricate the GOP from a blatant strategical failure and the subsequent loss of any goodwill by the electorate. There are many of us who will not rest until the public is completely aware of any betrayal of the Republican party concerning this matter. Obstruction and strategic voting is the only way to ensure the GOP maintains electoral gains.

As for Stupak and those who claim to strongly resist federal funding of abortions, the game is up. Insult our intelligence and look for another job. It does not take a PhD to understand that once government controls healthcare, federal funding of abortions is a soon-to-be foregone conclusion. Just a little legislative fix down the road and say hello to your tax dollars being used to kill the unborn. Stupak knows it, the GOP knows it, and the pro-life groups know it. To use this occasion to fund-raise knowing full well protection for the unborn is only temporary is pathetic. I hope the Tea Parties and other concerned citizens will inform pro-life groups that if they support ObamaCare in any way, they are supporting the use of federal funds for abortion regardless of what the language says or will soon say regarding this issue. They will pay and pay dearly for their worship of the dollar over the lives of the innocent.

If the tactic is to hang one’s hat on the Senate reconciliation process, Stupak knows better unless he is a complete idiot. Once the House bill is passed, ObamaCare is law, and the Democrats will pivot to jobs and off the issue in an effort to save their collective electoral butts. In either case neither Stupak nor any who claim to be in his camp would deserve re-election. A Representative who is disingenuous or a half with is no choice at all - unless the choice is to shove them out the door.

The following two posts, dated last year, still apply to the degree that strategic voting is discussed. It is shameful we must include the likes of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as opponents to the public will but also as opponents to the protection of the unborn. This organizations’ only issue with ObamaCare is federally funded abortion. Fix that in the legislative language and they are quite happy with ObamaCare, even with the knowledge that federally funded abortion is all but guaranteed if ObamaCare passes. Hypocrisy, political expediency, and just plain stupidity are on the lunch menu today. We have met the enemy and he is us. The time of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is nigh.

Although the following posts are dated, much of the information is pertinent to the current situation:
Killing ObamaCare In The Senate – The Need For Strategic Voting and The Endgame Strategy To Kill ObamaCare – Lessons From The House Bill

From Dr. Larry Hunter:

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops already has instant messaged their willingness not just to acquiesce in such shenanigans but also to actually mobilize the faithful to oppose any point of order in the Senate in order to lubricate passage of ObamaCare through the Senate:

The Roman Catholic bishops signaled Thursday that if agreement is reached with House leaders on anti-abortion language, the church would work to get the votes needed to protect the provisions in the Senate — and thereby advance the shared goal with Democrats of health care reform.

Now is the time for opponents of ObamaCare to focus, focus, focus on preventing Hoyer from maneuvering them into this corner. The only way for opponents of a government takeover of healthcare to prevent getting mouse trapped by a Separate Stupak is to recognize that the Stupak language and all Stupak lookalikes are a snare and a delusion.

NO legislative language will prevent ObamaCare once enacted into law from transforming very quickly into a federal abortion mill that provides abortion on demand. Given the obscure language inserted into the Senate Bill by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), which is being totally ignored by anti-abortion groups, even the strongest Stupak-like language will fail to stem a tide of transformative interpretations of bureaucrats and judges, which are sure to produce federally subsidized abortion on demand.

The Mikulski language gives plenary authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to require every public and private healthcare plan in the nation to include “preventative services,” which is defined to include “abortion care.” Even without the Mikulski provision, both the House and Senate bills are shot through with provisions that will lead inevitably to federally subsidized abortion on demand.

There is simply no way cleanse the final bill of this authority without starting over. Hence, what anti-abortion Members of Congress and the pro-life groups must understand is that the only route to protecting the unborn from the effects of this bill is to defeat the entire bill. As long as Members of Congress and pro-life groups labor under the delusion that they can make ObamaCare safe for the unborn, they will actually serve as the President’s useful idiots and facilitate federal abortion on demand.

The political problem is there are many libertarians and moderate Republicans who oppose anti-abortion laws. This fact unnerves many Republican Members of Congress who therefore attempt to straddle the abortion issue so as not to offend moderate Republicans who agree with their libertarian constituents on abortion.

Stupak is a perfect straddle, which has the unfortunate by product of removing the last remaining block preventing enactment of ObamaCare into law. Unless Republicans refuse to take a pass on Stupak-like language, i.e., vote present on any Stupak vehicle however it is presented to them in the parliamentary chaos likely to ensue once the legislative bum’s rush begins—they will actually set the stage for enactment of ObamaCare into law.

The reluctance of Republican Members of Congress to help defeat Stupak language on strategic grounds is a huge political miscalculation. This miscalculation results from failing to comprehend the coincidence of interests on ObamaCare among libertarians/moderate Republicans and anti-abortion conservatives. Because of this blind spot, Senate Republicans are poised to make the same fatal mistake they made the first time around when they failed to comprehend the necessity of strategic voting on abortion language.

Read the whole thing.

It’s hard not to read into this that he could vote yes on the Senate bill.

Rep. Bart Stupak said he expects to resume talks with House leaders this week in a quest for wording that would impose no new limits on abortion rights but also would not allow use of federal money for the procedure.

“I’m more optimistic than I was a week ago,” Stupak said in an interview between meetings with constituents in his northern Michigan district. He was hosting a town hall meeting Monday night at a local high school.

Okay Rep. Stupak, which is it? Either

• You will vote for the Senate bill as is and keep your fingers crossed that a bunch of known liars keep their promises, or
• You will agree to vote for the Senate bill with your amendment added back on and then let it go back to the Senate for a new vote.

There is a BIG difference between those two positions, so if you try to say they are equivalent you are full of baloney.

The following is from the Social Security Institute. If Republicans refuse to vote strategically as indicated in the referenced post, say goodbye to electoral gains for the GOP in November. Those wishing to stem the tide of third party challenges and the resulting repercussions to both local and state elections, as well as ushering in the end of any budding alliance between Tea Parties and the GOP better pay close attention. In short, lean and lean hard on the GOP to think carefully about any vote that expedites the passage of ObamaCare. Any vote for strengthening anti-abortion language in the healthcare bill is a vote FOR ObamaCare. To the point, anything that assists in the passage of ObamaCare is a tacit approval of ObamaCare. Excuses will not extricate the GOP from a blatant strategical failure and the subsequent loss of any goodwill by the electorate. There are many of us who will not rest until the public is completely aware of any betrayal by the GOP. Obstruction and strategic voting is the only way to ensure the GOP maintains electoral gains. From Dr. Hunter:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has telegraphed the strategy House Democrats are considering to shove ObamaCare down the throat of a resistant American public:

• Both Houses pass separate legislation that can be portrayed as sufficiently “anti-abortion” to satisfy Congressman Bart Stupak and his supporters; which will
• Mousetrap Republican Members of Congress and pro-life groups into supporting the bills; which in turn will make it possible to
• Pass the Senate Bill in the House; with the promise that
• The Senate Bill’s abortion language will be struck from the bill in a reconciliation package and justified as reducing federal outlays.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops already has instant messaged their willingness not just to acquiesce in such shenanigans but also to actually mobilize the faithful to oppose any point of order in the Senate in order to lubricate passage of ObamaCare through the Senate:

The Roman Catholic bishops signaled Thursday that if agreement is reached with House leaders on anti-abortion language, the church would work to get the votes needed to protect the provisions in the Senate — and thereby advance the shared goal with Democrats of health care reform.

Now is the time for opponents of ObamaCare to focus, focus, focus on preventing Hoyer from maneuvering them into this corner. The only way for opponents of a government takeover of healthcare to prevent getting mouse trapped by a Separate Stupak is to recognize that the Stupak language and all Stupak lookalikes are a snare and a delusion.

NO legislative language will prevent ObamaCare once enacted into law from transforming very quickly into a federal abortion mill that provides abortion on demand. Given the obscure language inserted into the Senate Bill by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), which is being totally ignored by anti-abortion groups, even the strongest Stupak-like language will fail to stem a tide of transformative interpretations of bureaucrats and judges, which are sure to produce federally subsidized abortion on demand.

The Mikulski language gives plenary authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to require every public and private healthcare plan in the nation to include “preventative services,” which is defined to include “abortion care.” Even without the Mikulski provision, both the House and Senate bills are shot through with provisions that will lead inevitably to federally subsidized abortion on demand.

There is simply no way cleanse the final bill of this authority without starting over. Hence, what anti-abortion Members of Congress and the pro-life groups must understand is that the only route to protecting the unborn from the effects of this bill is to defeat the entire bill. As long as Members of Congress and pro-life groups labor under the delusion that they can make ObamaCare safe for the unborn, they will actually serve as the President’s useful idiots and facilitate federal abortion on demand.

The political problem is there are many libertarians and moderate Republicans who oppose anti-abortion laws. This fact unnerves many Republican Members of Congress who therefore attempt to straddle the abortion issue so as not to offend moderate Republicans who agree with their libertarian constituents on abortion.

Stupak is a perfect straddle, which has the unfortunate by product of removing the last remaining block preventing enactment of ObamaCare into law. Unless Republicans refuse to take a pass on Stupak-like language, i.e., vote present on any Stupak vehicle however it is presented to them in the parliamentary chaos likely to ensue once the legislative bum’s rush begins—they will actually set the stage for enactment of ObamaCare into law.

The reluctance of Republican Members of Congress to help defeat Stupak language on strategic grounds is a huge political miscalculation. This miscalculation results from failing to comprehend the coincidence of interests on ObamaCare among libertarians/moderate Republicans and anti-abortion conservatives. Because of this blind spot, Senate Republicans are poised to make the same fatal mistake they made the first time around when they failed to comprehend the necessity of strategic voting on abortion language.

The vast majority of libertarians and moderate Republicans who oppose anti-abortion laws also oppose laws that force taxpayers to subsidize abortion. Consequently, where it comes to ObamaCare, there is a coincidence of interests between the so-called “social conservatives” who want to outlaw abortion and libertarians and moderate Republicans who want to outlaw forcing those who oppose abortion as a matter of conscience from being forced to subsidize it.

Given the fact that there is no practical way to prevent forced taxpayer subsidization of abortion once the government takeover of healthcare is a reality, the only way to satisfy the interests of all three groups is to prevent a government takeover of healthcare in the first place. And, the only way to prevent President Obama and congressional Democrats from succeeding with a government takeover of healthcare is to prevent a cosmetic “fix” to the abortion problem, i.e., Stupak, which would give sufficient political cover to Stupak Democrats to vote for the Senate Bill. As long as Republican Members of Congress fail to grasp this fact, they will be unable to oppose or at least walk away from any cosmetic “fix” to the abortion problem such as a Separate Stupak would offer. In other words, by voting for a Separate Stupak, Republicans would actually grease the skids for ObamaCare to be enacted into law.

Therefore, the common ground among social conservatives, libertarians and moderate Republicans is to oppose any legislative provision, including a Separate Stupak, that requires or ultimately leads to government subsidization of abortion.

It may sound harsh but the truth often is harsh: If ObamaCare passes into law it will be the fault of Republicans and the pro-life groups who have the power, without even breaking a sweat, to stop this monstrosity in its tracks.

No Separate Stupak, Stupid.

I didn’t understand the importance of words until I joined the Howe family. I was an English major in college yet a neophyte at real world application. I thought I was a Democrat until I met my husband. I was told many things about the Democrat party (and the Republican party - or rather, the dark side) while growing up. What I wasn’t told was the difference between literal and figurative speech.

My father-in-law, one of the smartest men I have ever known, has studied language his entire career. He studies the Bible and reads it from it’s original language of Hebrew to our present day language.  The objective is to ensure that the original intent of each word has remained intact through time and language; which it has. Through my time in a family that values each word one chooses to use I have learned that language is extremely powerful.

“That’s not what I meant.” “Then what did you mean?” “You know what I meant!” “That’s not what you said.” And so the argument goes. As a recovering Democrat I struggle almost daily with actually saying what I mean to say. I was lead to believe that the actual words used were not important as long as the general message got across. What’s worse is that the people who conveyed that the overall message was of greater value than the words used to get there actually understood the value of carefully considered wording. They’ve continued to play the language game; only now they’ve said too much and, ironically, with a 2000+ page bill their lies are becoming… what’s that word? Transparent.

In 2001, then Senator Barack Obama used language to repeatedly stop efforts to protect infants being murdered after being born alive. He was the only one to refuse to pass the bill because the language wasn’t precise enough for him. He valued words over human life. His attention to language and the intentional use of it does not go unnoticed today.

The Obama administration has attempted to rename every hurdle they have come across since taking office and abortion is no exception. With such a remarkable history of protecting murder, Barack Obama knew before he even swore his oath to protect that the word “abortion” would have to go away. With the reversal of the “Mexico City Policy” shortly after he took office, Obama welcomed in the term “family planning” to confuse the issue. One would think family planning denotes planning a family, but it’s actually quite the opposite when spoken by Obama.

Today we find “family planning” again in the health care bill that we have been repeatedly assured does not cover abortion. Well, it doesn’t, it covers “family planning” that will be provided in Community Health Centers. The centers are funded within the health care bill so that “family planning” doesn’t receive federal funding previously barred from such activity. In other words, new money will go to the Community Health Centers because the U.S. has this bothersome history of not federally funding abortions.

Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, has said the current Senate bill that Obama and Democrats are promoting through reconciliation, “would result in direct federal funding of abortion through Community Health Centers, tax subsidies for private abortion plans that cover abortion (including some federally administered plans), and pro-abortion federal administrative mandates, among other problems.”

Luckily, it appears some Democrats may stand with pro-lifers against the language of lies.  Bart Stupak (D-MI) is leading the charge that may put an end to Obamacare. Twelve Democrats in all have pledged to vote against the health care bill if it’s abortion language remains unchanged. In a twist that proves who’s really in charge, all the health care drama is playing out during the 40 Days For Life campaign; in which thousands across America are praying in front of abortion facilities. How fitting it is that the voices that never got a vote will be the ones to speak for us all.

In an administration pursuing an overseas contingency operation to ostensibly avert man-caused disasters, word replacement therapy has almost certainly just begun.  In the words of the master wordsmith, Bill Clinton, ‘it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”  If we didn’t learn our language lesson then, we must certainly learn it now.  Otherwise, we face falling into…ahem…pragmatism.

Hard to believe, but Stupak may yet be our savior in torpedoing ObamaCare:

An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D. Mich.) coordinated opposition to a Senate compromise on the place of abortion in health care legislation this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, the Conference Catholic Bishops, and other anti-abortion groups, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO.

Stupak, in an interview with POLITICO, called the Senate’s bill’s abortion position unacceptable[.]

Read More →