Really Stupak? All for a "symbolic gesture"?!
Oh how painful it was to see Bart Stupak go from a seemingly heroic, principled man to a typical, defiant, incoherent, fake-Catholyc Democrat politician in a matter of hours.
With so many conflicting reports on whether the President's Executive Order (to supposedly keep federal health care plans from funding baby-killing) amounts to anything, there is only one quote you need to read.
This tells you everything you need to know. After all, her people in the White House helped craft the bill in the first place.
"Today, monumental progress was made toward achieving these goals with the passage of historic health care reform legislation by the U.S. House of Representatives, despite a symbolic gesture, in the form of an Executive Order, to anti-choice Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI)... [my organization] applauds the fact that this legislation would extend health care coverage, including family planning, to tens of millions of women and families...and significantly increase access to reproductive health care. The proposal also includes a commonsense provision to expand family planning under Medicaid, which would significantly increase access to essential preventive health care for millions of women."
~Cecile Richards, CEO, Planned Parenthood
Symbolic gesture.
A rare gem of truth spoken by the current leader of the American holocaust.
I am hesitant to label Stupak as a “typical, defiant, incoherent” politician. For Stupak, it came down to the decision "Do I vote no on this bill and kill it, preventing health care for 30 million Americans, or do I vote yes and cling in hope that the executive order will provide some sort of substance to eliminating abortion funding?" It seems to me that the executive order may not be as worthless as people are making it out to seem. The legal experts agree that the bill itself will trump the executive order, and in that sense, it is worthless, but as the bill is discussed and develops over the next few years, the executive order may help establish at least a small precedent that the elimination of funding for abortion will be included in the bill. Though the Planned Parenthood people are happy about the bill, they are not happy about the executive order. And I think they are unhappy because the executive order is more than a symbolic gesture.
It seems clear that Stupak truly wants healthcare access for people who don't have it. He thinks it will help many struggling families. Though he promised to not vote for a bill that allowed for abortion funding, and then he voted for a bill that clearly allows for abortion funding, I think he was playing the hand he was being dealt. He made a political move, not a principled move. And it is for this reason that I could never be a politician. But I'm not ready to bail on him. Stupak is not Nancy Pelosi. He really wanted health care reform, and he got it, though he had to swallow it in a lesser form than he originally demanded. We found out the level to which he would go in order to get health care reform. It was lower than what the Bishops wanted, it was lower than what I wanted, and it was lower than what all pro-life leaders wanted. But I think that it is safe to say that, without Stupak, we wouldn’t even be having this sort of discussion. Without Stupak, Planned Parenthood would be much happier about this bill. They are happy yet cautious for a reason.
Lest I lead anyone astray, I should add the following: I am upset by the passage of the bill. I think we are running our country into the ground by adding $940 Billion of debt. I think the Executive order will hold little weight in the coming years. I disagree with Stupak's decision. But I'm not ready to jump ship on Stupak. He is the only politician that I have heard make any sense in the last few months, even when I disagree with him. I don’t think it was all a show.
"There was never much hope. Only a fool's hope."-Gandalf.
A fool I remain,
Tony
Reply to this
Tony, I truly hope you are right in that the jury is still out on Stupak. However, I stand by my "defiant, incoherent" labels and have lost all trust in any Democrat who claims to be pro-life. I stand by these labels not only because he caved for a useless Executive Order [signed behind closed doors today, btw, and released in Spanish for the first time in history... perhaps to draw in Hispanic American Catholics?], but more so because of his speech in the House chamber on Sunday.
Reply to this