Report: Stupak group has agreed to vote for bill

Contradicting my reasoning in the previous entry, Politico reports at 1:05 p.m.:

BREAKING: House Democrats have picked up critical health reform “yes” votes from a group of anti-abortion lawmakers, including Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, according to senior Democratic aides. Democrats believe a breakthrough with Stupak’s group—based on the promise of an executive order to be issued by President Barack Obama reinforcing a ban on federal funding for abortion—will help give them the 216-vote majority needed to pass reform on Sunday.

If this is true, then Stupak has turned himself into one of the biggest liars in history. After weeks and weeks of declaring in the firmest of tones that he would never vote for a bill that allowed federal funding of abortion, he has agreed to a deal which, as discussed in the previous entry, cannot possibly stop federal funding of abortion. Some gullible people may think that it can. Perhsps he is one of those gullible people. Perhaps he’s getting giddy. But if that’s the case, someone needs to reach him with the Catholc Bishops’ letter which explains with utter clarity why an executive order cannot stop the health care bill from funding abortion. The vote is still hours off. And with the kinds of reversals we’ve seen in this cliffhanger, more reversals are still possible.

UPDATE: However, it’s not at all clear that there is such a deal. This message was “tweeted” by CNN’s Steve Bruskk and posted at the Corner at 1:04 p.m.:

Urgent—Stupak to CNN producer Lesa Jansen: “I’m still a no…There is no deal yet. Its a work in progress.”

As I’ve been saying for the last two weeks, we must not put our trust in Stupak, or any man, but in God. Whatever happens on this earth, his command to us, which is the same command he gave to Abraham, is clear: Walk before me, and be thou perfect.

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Rick U. writes:

Well, now it’s not so clear where Stupak stands. Like you have said all along—he can’t be trusted, he wants the bill to pass. I hope his 15 minutes is about up. I think I’ll quit paying attention and just go pray that the bill doesn’t pass. Only God can help us now since the Democrats votes are clearly for sale.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 21, 2010 01:44 PM | Send