Even without abortion the bill is a socialist horror, especially the bit about forcing citizens to purchase healthcare, and this enforcement will be carried out by the IRS, as we noted in the "Obamacare Nightmare" - jv
Bishops offer help with 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.
“We would strongly urge everyone, Democratic and Republican, to vote to
waive the point of order,” Richard Doerflinger, an associate director
of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told POLITICO. “Whether it
would be enough to get to 60 votes, I can’t predict. We would certainly
try.”
“I think it’s something we should explore,” said Rep. Dale Kildee
(D-Mich.), a longtime opponent of abortion. “It could be something that
could carry out the bishops’ objective.”
Absent some agreement, there is the real threat that anti-abortion
Democrats will withhold their votes, making it harder, if not
impossible, to save health care in the House. The alternate route is a
gamble but one that opens the door to what could be a powerful alliance
benefiting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Barack Obama
as they try to jump-start the reform effort in the coming weeks.
With a large network of Catholic hospitals and the church’s gospel of
social justice, the bishops have long called for expanded health
coverage. As Kathy Saile, director of domestic policy for the
conference, said last fall, “The bishops see it as a moral imperative
and national priority.”
But abortion has been a stubborn dividing point with the two sides fighting over how tight to make the ban on federal funding.
In November, the bishops drove a tough bargain, winning an amendment by
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) that would severely restrict the ability of
even private companies to provide abortion coverage under new state
insurance exchanges. That House deal — since weakened by the Senate —
is what the bishops want to revive now as part of Obama’s final push on
health care. But to survive the Senate, any revisions would need 60
votes to overcome points of order under the expedited reconciliation
procedures being contemplated.
Conventional wisdom has held that it will be next to impossible to cut
this Gordian knot, since Republicans — with 41 votes — will be
determined to disrupt health care reform. But in the November House
debate, the bishops moved forcefully to squelch Republican efforts to
derail the Stupak amendment; Doerflinger indicated the conference would
take the same posture — that this is a vote of conscience.
“If the Stupak amendment or something equivalent to it were in the
reconciliation package on the Senate floor and it was necessary to get
60 votes to waive the point of order,” he said, “we would strongly urge
everyone, Democratic and Republican, to vote to waive the point of
order.”
“That could be the key vote,” Kildee told POLITICO. “The bishops could say, ‘Are you really with us?’ That’s the key vote.”
Stupak has been warning that he will withhold his vote for health care
reform absent some agreement, but in her weekly news conference, Pelosi
insisted that there have been no ironclad threats and that she is open
to talks.
“When people think there isn’t going to be a bill, they can take
whatever position they want,” Pelosi said. “But now they know there is
going to be a bill, and these members are saying, let’s talk.”
Kildee agreed, saying he continues to have discussions with Rep. Rosa
DeLauro (D-Conn.), Pelosi’s close ally. “It doesn’t have to be Stupak.
... I would look more at the objective than the language,” he said.
“The speaker’s good at counting. Her count will determine how far she
may go.
Originally posted on Politico: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/33962.html
RELATED:
"The Obamacare Nightmare": www.cfnews.org/obamacare-nightmare.htm
Posted on
March 5, 2010 by:
Catholic
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