Trying to pretend that he’s a moderate voice, President Barack Obama is misrepresenting the history of federal funding of abortions.
Seeking to appease abortion advocates after the House voted to ban abortion coverage within new federal insurance plans, President Obama told ABC News, “We’re not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions. . . . There needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we’re not changing the status quo.”
But without the House’s Stupak-Pitts Amendment, the long-standing federal policy would be reversed. The policy is that federal insurance programs don’t cover abortion unless it’s rape, incest or to save a mother’s life. No artificial distinction is made between federal and private dollars.
Obama is offering a gimmick by proposing that “only” private dollars (which have been mingled with taxpayer money) could be spent on abortions—a bookkeeping sleight-of-hand. An honest look at the history of federal funding for health insurance shows the falsity of Obama’s argument.
The FEHBP (Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan) provides the insurance for millions of federal workers, including Members of Congress. Administered through the federal Office of Personnel Management, FEHBP lets workers choose from a variety of different health insurance plans, but since1996 the law has required all of these plans to exclude abortion coverage, excepting only rape, incest and the life of the mother.
And it’s not just FEHBP. Military insurance through TRICARE does not cover abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk. Nor does the Indian Health Service.
Congressmen Bart Stupak (D, MI) and Joe Pitts (R, PA) told The Washington Post that they purposely modeled their amendment to reflect the existing law that covers the FEHBP and not to go beyond it. They’re right.
Abortion advocates are in riot mode over Stupak-Pitts, even sending a letter to Speaker Pelosi threatening to kill the bill when it comes to a final vote. Obama is picking his words carefully to agree with that group while trying to sound moderate to everyone else. He always tries to avoid the term “abortion” by euphemistically calling it “comprehensive reproductive services. But his extremism is on record since he’s told Planned Parenthood and others that he will push to reinstate partial-birth abortion (through the so-called “Freedom of Choice Act”).
But the “moderate” approach is the Stupak-Pitts amendment. It was supported by a vote of 240-194-1, including 64 Democrats such as Dave Obey (D-WI), John Spratt (D-SC), Richard Neal (D-MA), and many others who normally vote on the left.
Obama says he wants to undo the vote, claiming, “There needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we’re not changing the status quo.” Democrat leaders like Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) predict the pro-life language will be removed in any final conference report version of the bill.
Whether Obama and pro-abortion forces succeed on HR 3962 may depend on whether they can convince the public that they’re reasonable defenders of the status quo, rather than the extreme advocates for abortion that they are.
You have to read all the way to page A-25 in today’s New York Times to learn about it, but the Senate took its first floor vote on Obamacare yesterday and the White House lost. Big. The NYT reports: “Democrats lost a big test vote on health care legislation on Wednesday as the Senate blocked action on a bill to increase Medicare payments to doctors at a cost of $247 billion over 10 years. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, needed 60 votes to proceed. He won only 47. And he could not blame Republicans. A dozen Democrats and one independent crossed party lines and voted with Republicans on the 53 to 47 roll call.”
As we reported on Monday and Tuesday, yesterday’s “doc fix” vote was part of a White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel strategy to smooth passage of President Barack Obama’s $1 trillion-plus health care overhaul by transferring a quarter of its cost into a separate, and completely unpaid for, bill. This transparently dishonest shell game was too much for honest Democratic Senators like Evan Bayh (D-IN), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). Wyden told the NYT: “On the eve of a historic debate on health care, it’s essential to show a commitment to real reform,” which includes fiscal responsibility.
Yesterday’s vote marks a significant failure of the Left’s special interest approach to passing Obamacare. From the beginning, the White House thought that if it bought off all of the business interests involved (the American Medical Association, the drug industry, health insurers, hospitals, etc.) opposition to the plan would wither. In one sense, the plan worked. USA Today reports PhRMA, Pfizer, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and the Federation of American Hospitals have all ponied up millions of dollars for lobbying and television ads in support of Obamacare.
But all these special interest television ads failed to rid Americans of their common sense objections to Obamacare’s government takeover of health care. Gallup reports today that Americans now more than ever believe the costs their family pays for health care will get worse if Obamacare passes. And more Americans now believe that Obamacare will lower the quality of care they receive, reduce their health care coverage, and complicate the insurance company requirements they have to meet to get certain treatments covered.
Instead of the massive overhaul being pursued by the White House, a solid majority of Americans tell Gallup they want to see Congress move in the opposite direction. By 58% to 38%, Americans would generally prefer to see Congress deal with health care reform “on a gradual basis over several years” rather than “try to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan this year.” Bipartisan, fiscally responsible, reform such as equalizing the tax treatment of health insurance purchases, freeing customers to purchase health insurance across state lines, and allowing states more flexibility on Medicaid spending are readily doable. And that is what the people want.
Quick Hits:
- In a violation of laws against government-funded propaganda, the official, taxpayer funded, Department of Health and Human Services website urges Americans to to send an e-mail to President Barack Obama praising his health care reform plan.
- According to a new report, 7 months after President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus became law, 49 of 50 states have lost jobs and America is now over 6 million jobs shy of White House promises.
- The Obama administration’s wage control czar plans to order companies that received bailout money to slash pay for each of the companies highest paid employees by an average of 50%.
- The drug and insurance industries have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress in favor of Obamacare.
- Windmills’ propensity to kill bats is pitting endangered species advocates against climate change scaremongers.