Remember Congressman Bart Stupak? He of the staunch pro-life persuasion, who nonetheless gave the Obama administration an out in 2010 with his willingness to provide the final votes in the House to push Obamacare over the top? He exchanged those votes for an executive order—that from the very beginning obviously was going to be thrown in the figurative dumpster as soon as doing so proved convenient for Mr. Obama—to the effect that no taxpayer dollars or individual premiums were to be used for abortion services. In the wake of the administration’s decision to force Catholic and other institutions to cover abortifacients and other such “health” services in insurance plans, has anyone asked Mr. Stupak for his views on this? And whether he now regrets his surrender while in a position to stand for principle? Just asking.
— Benjamin Zycher is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.
Democrat means never having to say sorry.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is a continuing complaint I have about journalism. You very rarely see follow-up. I remember the Peggy the Moocher coverage from the 2008 campaign. I've repeatedly asked several sites to go and find her and see if her gasoline is now free, and if she has a free house, among other fantastical things she was expecting from Obama and his powers.
Every news site should have a "Follow-up Department" that tracks down people after they've made ridiculous statements that everybody knows will come back to haunt them, but never do because of our collective American A.D.D.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy would he care? He's off living on his big, fat congressional pension.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's very rare when pro-lifers and pro-choicers agree on anything, but both sides agreed that the President's promised executive order would be meaningless.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseStupak retired because he knew his surrender to pro-abortion advocates in his party, as well as the worthless nature of the President's executive order and his reliance upon it, would ultimately come to light and he didn't want to be around to answer any questions when they did. However, the American people aren't as stupid as Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Bart Stupak believe we are and were fully aware at the time Obamacare was passed that our tax dollars would be used to fund abortions. If were told by abortion advocates had been true - that tax dollars would not be used to fund abortions - the amendment Stupak requested would have had no impact on the legislation and there would have been no reason to oppose it and anger pro-life constituents. The fact that Pelosi and other pro-abortion advocates in the Democratic Party adamantly refused to agree to an allegedly meaningless amendment told us all we needed to know about the pro-abortion nature of the legislation. Lies, lies and more lies from the Speaker and President who promised transparency.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan we get a comment from noted conservative Catholic Doug Kmiec? Is he still licking the Administration boots? I haven't seen any resignation letter from him yet?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy bad. He already resigned on grounds of incompetence.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh come on, we all know Stupak wasn't pro life. He said he was to get elected, but when the rubber hit the road, you knew he'd bend. When his vote actually mattered, you knew where he'd fall. I knew the moment his name was brought up that he would flip when it mattered. That's what these pro life Democrat liars do. They lie. He lied. We all knew this would happen. We knew what Obamacare would do. Stupak may be a dishonest liar, but he's not stupid. He knew this was coming.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAre people unaware of, or indifferent to, the fact that 28 states require contraceptive coverage? And that several of those, including Newt Gingrich's Georgia, have no religious exemption at all? Romney's Massachusetts allows for some exemptions--but not for hospitals.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat fact does not resolve anything. Obamacare places a heavy burden on religious institutions without any possible way out of it. As the USCCB states: "This misleads (the state issue) by ignoring important facts, and some of it is simply false. All the state mandates, even those without religious exemptions, may be avoided by self-insuring prescription drug coverage, by dropping that particular coverage altogether, or by taking refuge in a federal law that pre-empts any state mandates (ERISA)."
Religious institutions in all those states 1) do not mandate that you even have to offer insurance except Massachusetts; 2) All the states but three have adequate protections for religious institutions; 3) in the ones that don't you can still get around by self funding, ERISA or by not providing a health insurance plan for your employees. The bottom line is, under Obamacare, the religious institutions are compelled to do it under penalty of law. There is no alternative, they are stuck. They can't even decide not to insure people entirely. It is a boot on their neck. No way out. You cannot compare the state situation to the federal at all. There is not one state that is comparable to what is going on here. I don't think this outcry is feigned. Even dems are opposed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseStupak had his "Stupak's Dozen". But all dozen were unnamed except for him. I could never understand how a group of Democrats who were committed to protecting the unborn and pledged to vote NO on Obamacare without the Stupak ammendment, hid behind a wall of anonymity.
Maybe Stupak committee Hari Kari just like his fellow Catholic ex-congressman Joseph Cao suggested the BP executives should do after the oil leak.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe follow-up I'd really like to see is what are all the dem congresscritters who voted for Obamacare and were turned out of office doing now?
I was dead certain that all these guys had been made extravagant promises by the administration of being set up for life if they voted for it. Have they all been "taken care of"? Does Bart Stupak have all sorts of cushy sinecures? Board memberships? Amazing investments? Lobbying jobs? Perhaps Bart prefers to stay under the radar because he's now making money hand-over-fist in ways that would excite suspicion if they came to light.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI really think you are going to have a hard time selling your argument if you keep conflating contraceptives and abortion, and adding scare quotes to women's health services.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI believe you are conflating abortifacient with surgical abortion. Zycher's meaning was clear to me.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho didn't expect Bart to fold and who didn't know the executive order was a lie. Of course, wasn't Jim Webb another tough stand up guy who folded like a deck chair and Manchin out of WV is another complete fraud.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Staunch"? What the health care debate showed is that, with respect to those Congressional Democrats who claimed to be pro-life and moderate, that group was composed almost entirely of liars and phonies who positioned themselves that way solely for political purposes. How can you be so gullible?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm still waiting for Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky to get the media butt-kicking she deserved - she of the deal-cut-for-final-vote-on-biggest-tax-increase-in-history.
Her only punishment so far has been getting Chelsea for a daughter-in-law.
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