Interesting news from the Congressional Quartlerly via NRO. Sen. Bob Casey, the pretend pro-life Senator from Pennsylvania, is working on a compromise to bring Sen. Ben Nelson on board the healthcare bill.
According to CQ, what Casey is proposing is a abortion fund segregation scheme. The babies still end up dead, but we have the moral superiority of the hiring the hitman rather than pulling the trigger. So far, this ploy does not seem to be fooling anyone.
Bishop DiNardo of the USCCB secretariat of pro-life activities is not falling for it.
“Attempts to achieve such segregation are irrelevant to current policy, which bars federal funds from being used for any part of a package that covers elective abortions,” the archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, wrote.
Doug Johnson of the NRLC is having none of it either.
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, has seen a summary of the Casey proposal. He called the language “entirely unacceptable.”
That a “pro-life” Senator would be the source of such reprehensible bait and switch murderous middleman scheme proves how little life actually means to Sen. Casey.
So far, Sen. Nelson is sticking to his guns and it is my prayer that he will not be bought off by any such murderous ruse.
Keep hope alive and keep praying.
Update: Sen. Ben Nelson is also saying that the language is “unacceptable.“
In an interview Thursday with a Nebraska radio station, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said new compromise language on abortion funding is unacceptable.
“As it is right now, without further modifications, it isn’t sufficient,” Nelson told KLIN radio in Lincoln, NE.
This could be a significant blow to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s effort to line up 60 votes in the coming days for the health care bill. Nelson has said he would filibuster the bill unless the abortion language mirrored what was included in the House bill.
Even if abortion is addressed to his satisfaction, “that is not enough” for Nelson commit to voting for the bill, he said.
December 17, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Well, if you don't believe in segregation of funds, I'm sure you believe in cancelling the faith-based initiative program, which gives funding to religious organizations sfor charitable works so long as they segregate it from their religious activities. May as well be consistant, no?
December 17, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Anonymous, I would be quite in favor of that very thing. The Church in Denver has been prostituting itself for a decade by taking every govt. handout they can get. I feel that things are getting dangerously close to complicitness with intrinsic evil. That said, I don't think the govt. would like to take on the burden that is now being lifted by the church where social programs for the poor are concerned.
December 17, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I'm suprised that the USCCB had the gumption to appose this. Good for them.
December 17, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Patrick,
Good stuff.
One note, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo is an archbishop, not bishop.
Keep up the great witness!
December 17, 2009 at 9:40 pm
He also said that the abortion funding was not the only problem. The radio hosts asked if he would vote yes if they changed the abortion language and he said no, there were other substantive issues, although he did not elaborate.
Abortion is the big issue. He also denied the Offutt AFB rumor.