The immediate reaction to news that Pelosi will allow an up or down vote on the Stupak amendment prohibiting funding abortion in the healthcare bill is to view it as a victory. We should be careful what we wish for.
Pelosi clearly does not have enough votes to pass the bill without the pro-life Dems on board. If it fails, then most likely some of the pro-life Dems will say, “Oh well, we tried” and vote for final passage of the full bill, abortion and all.
But if the Stupak amendment passes, we are clearly not out of the woods. In all likelihood, Pelosi would be able to cajole the radical pro-abortion Dems in the house to go along for now. The Senate does not care about abortion so their version of the bill will not include language similar to the Stupak amendment. The Stupak language would then likely be stripped in the reconciliation process and sent back for final passage.
At that point, no more amendments are permitted. Having the cover of having voted against abortion in the up/down Stupak vote, Pelosi might very well have enough votes to get final passage, abortion and all. They will say things like “Well I voted against the funding of abortion. But that is not possible now. The bill is not perfect, but people are suffering and so I will vote for final passage.”
Clearly the Stupak amendment is a good thing as it is the only option we have now save killing the bill in its entirety. But even if it passes, federally funded abortion is not dead. The only way to prevent it is to kill the bill, once and for all.
If Stupak passes today, our work is just beginning.
November 7, 2009 at 6:45 pm
This time in our history is more important for our sacred, God-given freedom than the American War for Independence; and the opposition among our fellow Americans more deadly and dangerous than anything George III could ever do. What is going on today is a series of tactics by the Left in the expectation that pro-life forces might be satisfied and drop their opposition to this disasterous and tyrannical bill. Or at least to placate most of the Catholic bishops of whom so many are card-carrying liberal Democrats and part of the problem.
November 8, 2009 at 1:23 am
No matter how this turns out, the war is far from over. It is no longer about partisan politics and it goes beyond abortion and fiscal conservatism. It is a more radical struggle between the forces of darkness vs. the servants of God. And if God is for us, then who can prevail against us.
November 8, 2009 at 3:03 am
Secession is the answer. It's time to break up the good old U.S.A.
November 8, 2009 at 4:32 am
Geronimo,
Secession implies that entire geographic areas would withdraw from the union. With few exceptions (Utah, possibly Texas) I don't see how secession is possible.
November 9, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Texas? Yes! Texas would be fine!
November 9, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Ron Bowers,
You move. Americans move constantly anyway.
Whole populations in eastern Europe moved after World War II to realign the boundaries between Germany, Poland, Czeckoslovakia and the U.S.S.R., so that they would be in the correct ethnic nation.
What's the point of keeping a nation together with people that have such opposite philosophies of life?