Health Wars (11/6/09)

Well, now we know what the biggest obstacle to House BarryCare is.  And Crazy Nancy's stereotypically dishonest attempt to swindle her way around it went over like a fart in church:

Eighth District U.S. Representative Brad Ellsworth, D-IN, might have expected that his amendment to the health care reform bill, which he says will ensure no federal funds are used to provide elective abortions, would be opposed by Planned Parenthood.

The abortion rights group weighed in with a statement of opposition on Tuesday.

But the Ellsworth amendment, which House leaders have said they may incorporate into the bill, also has sparked a furious backlash among national, state and local anti-abortion groups who typically support Ellsworth.

Pitted against the Ellsworth amendment are the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Right to Life Committee, Indiana Right to Life and Vanderburgh County Right to Life.

Now why, do you s'pose, would pro-life forces furiously oppose the ostensibly pro-life Ellsworth amendment?  Perhaps because it isn't really pro-life at all:

In other words, it’s a placemarker for the Hyde Amendment.  If the Hyde Amendment gets repealed, then the public option will fund abortions.  Even without it, the exchanges can offer abortion coverage as long as it doesn’t involve the direct payment of services by the federal government.  The exchanges would subsidize the abortion coverage by either forcing private insurers to offer it as part of their comprehensive plans or in riders, either of which would be subsidized for families at 400% of the poverty line or below — with federal dollars.

In still other words, this fraud ain't gonna work.  Pro-life Dems know a fake "pro-life amendment" from the genuine article, and they know Bart Stupak's - which has been prominently out there since the summer - is far more "the real deal" than a flimsy shell-game cobbled together at the last minute.  Which evidently means that the only way to get to passage of House BarryCare is through the Stupak forty.

One more reason why Granny is holding the House hostage through the weekend - and beyond:

The House is in the final rush toward passage of a national health care bill, and there’s one thing Speaker Nancy Pelosi absolutely, positively does not want her Democratic lawmakers to do: Go home.

“You meet constituents and get an earful from them — that’s the last thing she wants,” says a key House Republican aide. “If you were a Democrat, and you went home last weekend and were asked about the health care bill, you could say, ‘I’m still looking at it.’ Well, now you’ve had it for a week, the vote is any day now. What are you going to say?” Better just to stay in Washington and avoid potentially uncomfortable scenes. …

There are dozens of Democrats representing districts where a majority of voters have serious misgivings about national health care. And yet many will end up voting for their party’s bill. Why?

“The thing that Pelosi has going for her right now is that a lot of her members are more afraid of her than they are of their constituents,” says the GOP insider. He notes that Pelosi has plenty of weapons to make life miserable for members who cross her — “any benefits the member can have for the remainder of this Congress, the kind of support they’ll have going into next year’s election, and if they lose, what kind of post-Congress opportunities they will have.” All could be endangered by a vote against the health care bill.

Whereas if they vote for House BarryCare, the phrase changes to "WHEN they lose".

Frankly, I think Nance is as afraid of "her members" as they are of her.  If she lets them go home, she's lost them for sure, but they're already so far gone that if she locks them up inside the House chamber, she may have to make what, for her, would be a cruel, painful choice: give Bart Stupak what he wants.  Which, of course, is only an up or down vote on his genuine pro-life amendment banning abortion funding from House BarryCare - but what if she can't hold her caucus together to deep-six it?  Is appeasing Godbama so important that it outweighs blaspheming the death cult?

If J-Ger has it right, it's already too late:

House Republicans note, "As of today, at least 69 Democrats have expressed opposition to the Speaker’s health care bill."

Sixty-nine?!?  Whoa, man, I never imagined there could be another application of that number that could be nearly as entertaining.  Shall we start icing the (metaphorical) champagne?

Well, you know how rumors work.  But there does seem to be something to this one: