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Nineteen Dems Want Abortion Out Of Health Bill
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Nineteen House Democrats have told Speaker Pelosi they will not vote for healthcare legislation "unless it explicitly excludes abortion funding from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan."
The 19 Democrats are: Reps. Dan Boren (D-OK); Bart Stupak (D-MI); Colin Peterson (D-MN); Tim Holden (D-PA); Travis Childers (D-MS); Lincoln Davis (D-TN); Heath Shuler (D-NC) Solomon Ortiz (D-TX); Mike McIntyre (D-NC); Jerry Costello (D-IL); Gene Taylor (D-MS); James Oberstar (D-MN); Bobby Bright (D-AL); Steve Driehaus (D-OH); Marcy Kaptur (D-OH); Charlie Melancon (D-LA); John Murtha (D-PA); Paul Kanjorski (D-PA); and Kathleen Dahlkemper (D-PA).
That’s great, there are 19 Dems — many of them Rahm Emanuel’s pets — who draw a line in the sand and say they won’t vote for any bill that covers reproductive health. But with minor exception, members who have floated all kinds of lofty rhetoric about their support for a public plan don’t want to say they won’t vote for a bill that doesn’t have one. They want to "leave themselves open."
Meanwhile, President Lieberman and President Nelson and President Landrieu have absolutely no trouble whatsoever saying they won’t vote for a bill that HAS a public plan. Saying what you won’t vote for seems to be easy, as long as it’s pro-insurance industry and regressive.
I think it’s pretty clear where we’re headed on this. It’s "public plan" kabuki. The progressives are putting on a nice show but in the end, they’re fully prepared to sell the public plan — and women — down the river.
If you want a decent health care bill, you’re going to have to get on the phone and tell people you’re pissed and that you’re not going to settle for kabuki. If Joe Lieberman can say where he draws the line, so can they. And if they’re not willing to hold a line, if they’re only willing to take progressive votes when they don’t matter, then at least we’ll know what we’re dealing with.
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Looks like a fair number of Catholics in that group.
I knew injection of the Abortion issue would enter at some point.. so i am glad it’s happening now.
If anyone is keeping a ( who might join this) list, Marion berry, Blue Dog from Arkansas, is a known anti woman’s reproductive rights nitwit himself. So i would expect his name to end up on this list as well.
Susie Madrak just posted on C and L about how nice it is that Wal Mart is now considering businesses be forced to offer health care? Is something suddenly wrong with the world that people are going to go enlist with the enemy?
Can we find out who Wal Mart is paying to make these absurd statements?
Jane,
You are doing great work on this signature issue. Sometimes there’s so much bullshit that you want to scream. Thanks for screaming for me while I cajole my representatives into doing what is right rather than what is politic.
There needs to be consequences for spineless actions.
Doesn’t wal-mart offer HI to most full time employees now? I bet they are only (at best) endorsing what they already do.
I noticed all but two of these so called dems are men.
I am so sick of the stupidity in Washington. Conservadems will continue to do this shit at their own peril.
I can’t blame you for not taking the time to type “DINO” nineteen times.
If Pelosi had a spine she’d tell them fine, no money for your district for the foreseeable future and no help with your reelections
wtf? 19 dems?
i really thought the kabuki was for show so that congress dems and/or obama could “save” the day with a crappy pubic plan bill and it would be like ACES with most everyone cheering something i would rather have seen fail.
but yikes. this is shaping up to be worse, much worse.
will make more calls tomorrow
Jeez. for different reasons that don’t matter right now, abortion has never been for me the issue it has for many of you. But, shit. This is bullshit. It’s fucking legal guys. This is the shit we expect from R loons. Is Boren a bigger asshole than his daddy?
so what?
wonder where BAM is gonna be on this.
Will Viagra be covered?
Enough said.
Get out your yard stick. /s
I mean… look…. there’s lots of people who are against abortion who I respect. But the whole issue has no place in the health care debate.
LOL.
Is Boren a bigger asshole than his daddy?
Yes!! He wants to live up to the asshole-ness that his dad was.
Healthcare to these conservadems means sticking a coat hanger through the cervix to terminate a pregnancy. Nice. Spit.
WalMart wants to be a Provider of low cost healthcare.
You can get your flu shots next to the eye center and your hypertension meds the same place that prescribes them.
I hope somebody will take JoLie and Nelson’s obnoxiousness back to their constituents. I’m sure the good people of Connecticut and Florida are going to be overjoyed that their senators are about to turn healthcare reform into a giant insurance industry boondoggle. Nothing to be done about Landrieu – politicians are not required to represent constituents in the Kleptokakistocracy of Louisianistan… Oberstar’s an arse. About ten years ago I had the honor of being thrown out of his office by an aid for politely disagreeing with him…. on reproductive rights, actually.
I have no problem with people who are against abortion. It’s a personal decision. It’s not for me either, but I do not presume to go around telling other women what they should do in any given situation. What kills me is the conservadem assholes don’t even want to fix healthcare for those who are already born.
Eight are from the South, MS(2), TN, NC(2), TX, AL and LA. Four, count ‘em, 4 are from PA, including Murtha. Two each from OH and MN.
Why would you respect someone who wants to take away the personal rights of over half the population – the right to privacy?
Nelson (Hisse’f, FL) is worthless.
i’m from crimson flaming idaho and even my Blue Dog rep Walt Minnick deosn’t spout such garbage.
what’s the excuse of these losers?
Oberstar is very Catholic and reportedly Opus Dei. Nobody’s going to be able to change his mind on this one. He’s one of about a dozen members of the House (mostly rethugs) who really represent Rome (or at the very least, the American Council of Bishops) and not the constituencies that elected them.
If they’re Rahm’s pets why are they fighting the President’s plan?
OH.
Tells you everything you need to know.
How many of these are insurance co. whores also?
Makes sense.. At least that bodes well for optical coverage.
And 18 of the 19 are men…no skin off their noses since their wives and daughters will all have the financial means and access to terminate an unwanted preganancy if need be. Assholes….
Thanks for the ht about my rep., Dullkemper. I’ll call every office she has tomorrow. How pathetic they all are and to think they’re Democrats, too, in name only. So far she’s only been marginally better than the man she replaced, Phil (I’ve got myself covered) English.
Damn, I was just starting to like Bart Stupak after that eye-opening hearing on health insurance recission he chaired. Still on CSPAN’s top 10 video list two weeks later.
some of ‘em yes. But a few of ‘em… well, let’s just say that I don’t even want to try to imagine what they’d do their daughters if they got pregnant out of wedlock and then aborted. We have a few Talibans in our party too.
This just makes me sick. Jane, thanks so much for all of your tireless work and direction on this health care mess.
Yes. Simple answers to simple questions today!
Mrs. TBogg! Assholes indeed.
I was going to say “your family has quite the nose for them” but that just sounds wrong.
KaCHING!!!
privacy – how quaint. that went the way of the dodo bird with fisa.
Isn’t there SOMETHING in Rahm’s past that can get him booted out? Rahm and Giethner and Orzag and Gibbs and the Sunsteins of Obama’s world are really making shit out of shinola, and that really ain’t the hopenchange people were looking for.
Bart did okay on that hearing, I agree. But his dark Christian underbelly showed up at the house with Ensign and that ilk that he shares, that is owned by some weirdo cult. Seems like a white trash version of the tomb, up yonder at Yale. McGuane has a great book that covers alot of that same ground: The Sporting Club…
I suspect as these bastions of power realized it may actually cause their health coverage to be scrutinized, and probably modified, they done done their best to switch gears, cloud the water and learn to find reasons to not support a public option.
Total complete bought and paid for whores
how sad
OT: SD: Thanks for the kitty advice. A favorite place seems to be on the buffet (that Ive cleared) or a comfy pillow on top of the coffee table (that is going away, I think) and she can jump up to the counter by the stove…hope the heat doesn’t hit some very lovely paws. So we have alot to learn. But she has generally taken over the place in about 24 hrs. Im hearing alittle told you so out there. She is loving and beautiful, btw. Thanks,
and 1 from MI, Bart Stupak.
Why isn’t there an equal protection claim somewhere here, similar to the rquirement to provide mental health services. How does one, even the Pope, acquire the power to dictate what health services are covered?
I have just a few words for these 19 ‘Dem Reps’ – GO FUCK YOURSELVES! But I digress – we need to stay focused on what Jane has formulated and drive to 40+. I also ask everyone here to read Chris Bowers rationale for ‘THE PROGRESSIVE BLOCK’. We in the Progressive Community have a perfect opportunity to create ‘real change’.
Let’s recapture the feeling we all had when we collectively spoke these words: YES WE CAN!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE JACKASSES???? These 19 folks CANNOT be allowed based on their beliefs in fairy tales to stonewall health care for 300 million-plus folks!! They just can’t !!!
This is the ongoing slow drip drip drip that happens when candidates like Clinton and Obama say they want abortion to be rare. Why??
The logical assumption is that it’s a “tragedy”. Not for the women who have the right to determine the course of their lives just like men do.
Not for the countless unwanted children who are now abused and abandoned because abortion is b-a-a-d…even Obama wants there to be less of it.
Why? “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament (poster from the Seventies.”
Just curious, does Medicaid money go toward abortions now?
If not, then it’s no problem to accomodate those people. The public option (in the legislation being considered) is based entirely on premiums paid by the public — not gov’t. The only gov’t monies involved would be subsidies through Medicaid, so if the law regarding that money doesn’t allow abortions…
If they want to alter that part of Medicaid, then they might be able to do that. They should certainly look into it and do a whip count to see where they stand wrt that.
I suppose I should also add that families which don’t require a subsidy, but who also are concerned about insurance coverage could be offered a public option with the features which suits their needs. I don’t think that would be difficult to arrange.
How the funding of a group is utilized will naturally come into the discussion at that point.
What I mean is, does ALL money coming into public option plans stay together or get segmented by plan? If you have segmentation, so that each plan is entirely separate, then you might not achieve quite the same savings in the non-abortion plan(s) because the numbers of policies/people-covered could be lower.
That would be sort out could be very hard to guess ahead of time. What would people gravitate toward and would this or that group be okay with a single pool of money or would they prefer segmentation?
I think it’s doable, but a little complicated.
I notice most of them are men.
Can we make sure that they don’t get their blue pills, since those are also ‘reproductive health care’?
Odd how those 19 Dems won’t vote for a public option that includes reproductive care, but their Congresscritter taxpayer-funded plans include it.
What with all those little blue pills (and the odd un/planned pregnancy) even McCain’s fat wallet would take a hit if he had to pay for them himself. Those 19 just can’t deal with the notion that they aren’t unique, which makes them Villagers.
It’s time to hit Pelosi hard, any way we can.
She’s GOT to get some pressure on ANY DEM that wanders and strays to pugly turf.
This is intolerable, these 19 Dems. Not in MY party, dammit.
Not In My Party!
Besides calling and emailing Pelosi, who ELSE do we jump all over to force these, these, neanderthals, into the 21st Century and in support of their constituents? I don’t BUY their constituents are anti womans rights. I just don’t buy it. Suppressed voices, maybe, but not anti.
Time to bring the meteor to these dino’s!!!! We are the meteor. *G*
So that’s old school anti abortion and anti reproductive rights and anti conception.
What’s new? Catholics didn’t disappear, but they ARE sometimes folded in with the psychotic right wing nut loons.
And I apologize for disparaging loons in general, as they are lovely and wonderous birds.
The others, not so much. ‘Kin loons. Batshit crazy, too, them loons. Rabid at de mouf . . . grrrrr . . . .
Bobby Bright is a Blue Dog who has voted with the Repugs on just about every vote. He is unlikely to vote for any spending on a health bill with or without reproductive health.