A Betrayal Is A Betrayal

By now you’ve probably heard about the Stupack amendment, which would make it illegal for any insurance offered on the exchanges set up by the health care reform bill to cover abortion services. It is being allowed to the floor by the leadership, and indications are that there may be enough votes for it to pass. If it were to remain in the final bill, it would strip practical access to insurance from millions of women, a number which would increase when the exchanges open to businesses.

This is such a huge betrayal of Democratic ideals and values I know not what to say. It's also, as Ian notes, a betrayal that will burden women of child-bearing age disproportionately. Is this what the Democrats in Congress have become?

It's regressive and backwards in every way.

UPDATE:
Healthcare passes 220 Yeas, 215 Nays

Stupak Amendment Passes; 64 Dems Ask for Primary Opponents

Sean Paul Kelley November 7, 2009 - 4:27pm

Sean Paul Kelley's diary | printer friendly version |

( categories: USA: Domestic Issues )

This is the way they sink

Either by incompetence or design, this is the way you can sink the PO; just explode the bill by making it have toxic riders, then blame the Republicans for the failure. If this goes down, virtually every vote for it can kiss off getting a dime out of me ever again. And Obama better hope the 2012 challenger is truly noxious, because I'll be wanting to jump ship ASAP.

zot23 November 7, 2009 - 5:57pm

Oh, it's by design,

with good intention, too. Frankly, I hope the bill dies for this and other reasons.

Lesly November 7, 2009 - 7:14pm

GOP is another term for hate and discontent

R=racist
E-extremist and ethically challenged
P=pusillanimous
U=unpatriotic
B=belligerent
L=lackeys to big business
I=ignorant
C=chickenhawk-friendly
A=arrogantly sexist
N=not respectful of another human being's right to make medical decision for herself or himself
S=systematically raping the U.S.A. in the name of extremism and religion.

And people wonder why the GOP is losing ground in this country. The grisly old party is being led around by the dick by religious fascists who want only to control our private lives and suck in on government money to force the rest of us to believe as they do. And, these same hateful Christianist apologists cannot seem to figure out that when they whine about keeping government out of our private lives, it also means that we want and need to keep the long arm of religous bigotry out of our crotches and bedrooms and women's vaginas and uteruses. They just don't see it. All they care about is hatred in the name of their Gawd.

We need health care reform. We need health care that is dispassionate and not beholden to hateful, ugly Christianist rapists who would force their own brand of belief down everybody's throat or up their crotches. Get religion out of our politics. Get hate out of our health care discourse.

All I see here on Agonist is a bunch of whining as the GOP systematically wrecks everything that was once good about America. Everything.

dejah thoris November 7, 2009 - 7:53pm

No offense dude

But Democrats are in charge right now. If they didn't let Stupak's admendent come up for a vote, it wouldn't. The GOP is certainly toxic, but this problem exists solely due the house democratic leadership's failings. This trash should have never been considered, it is sludge and avarice writ large. Dems in congress should be ashamed.

zot23 November 7, 2009 - 7:58pm

You know

that Stupak is a Democrat, right?

Lex November 8, 2009 - 10:56am

Not the leadership

The problem is more fundamental than just a leadership group which is weak ore even prone to sabotage. There is now simply too much power, in the form of money and purchased influence, to allow the U.S. Republic to function as it was designed to. In other words, this really is Wiemar.

The next phase, in which everyone begins to hate the liberals, now becomes easier to understand every day. "Liberals," from that point of view, are those who are in favor of keeping the structure of the republic unchanged. "Liberals" believe we can go back to the supposed great old days of obedience to the Constitution.

Most of us on the Left still believe the existing U.S. Constitution can survive. But to my eyes that looks unlikely. Soon most people will be in favor of some kind of radical change. Then the Left and Right can truly duke it out. Sadly, the outcome of such a process will be effectively random. We will probably end up with a regime with strong ideology and few constraints on its actions.

dratman November 7, 2009 - 11:45pm

what are the

chances this will be yanked out later? Will the Stupak amendment stand as legal or will lawsuits be filed on Monday?

Tina November 7, 2009 - 11:59pm

chances aren't 0%, *BUT*......

considering the Senate's more conservative than the House, I'm not confident.... My Spidey-sense is telling me the Conference Comittee will leave it in....

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

justadood November 9, 2009 - 11:23am

Might the Stupak

amendment be defeated by the Senate voting against it? Or are there Democrat Senators who will also reject women's equality? (Qualification, additional to Lieberman? L0L!)

canuck November 8, 2009 - 2:12am

The big picture is that a

The big picture is that a healthcare bill for universal coverage passed the House. This is unprecedented. And note that this bill had the full backing of the AMA, which fought Medicare tooth and nail in 1964.

This bill is a start. We are over a hump. I am glad we're over it. On to the Senate, where maybe Stupak can be weakened.

Many left of Obama think he was weak or unprincipled. I think he stuck out his neck plenty far, and that the House leadership did what they had to, to get this thing passed.

Tom Robinson

trob November 8, 2009 - 4:37am

it is just one more betrayal

from this administration, no matter how it gets spun. They can't guarantee it will be pulled so as far as I'm concerned they can kiss my ass - starting with Oberstar.

Tina November 8, 2009 - 5:32am

Do we know why

Kucinich voted no?

Tom Robinson

trob November 8, 2009 - 11:56am

Why I voted no on 3962 - A Bailout Under a Blue Cross

The Cleveland Leader, November 8

Cleveland area Congressman Dennis Kucinich has long been one of the strongest voices for health care for all but was one of 36 Democrats who voted no on H.R. 3962 the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Kucinich explained his "no" vote on his website that read:

After voting against H.R. 3962 - Affordable Health Care for America Act, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement:

“We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system.

“Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000%. It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick.

_{They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.}

Raja November 8, 2009 - 12:05pm

Kucinich should give up his Congress health plan.

Voluntarily. To show solidarity.

creativelcro November 9, 2009 - 7:32pm

And note that this bill had

And note that this bill had the full backing of the AMA, which fought Medicare tooth and nail in 1964.

This change of heart from the AMA is supposed to bode well for progressives?

Lesly November 8, 2009 - 2:00pm

Bodes better for the country, yet

purist progressives seem irate. I don't get it.

You know, if progressives (I thought I was one but my card must need a new stamp) think the AMA is corrupt, and the insurance industry is corrupt, this puritancal line of thinking starts to make most everyone wrong in America. Pretty soon the whole nation sucks.

I am so stuck on a soapbox of "Where is your coalition?" Where is the progressive coalition for single payer, no insurance industry involvement, full government funding? There isn't any coalition to pass progressive healthcare legislation. Or maybe this bill passed last night *is* the progressive healthcare legislation for the year.

I have nearly as progressive a congressman in Seattle as Dennis Kucinich: Jim McDermott, who's actually a doctor. He's way left of Obama on this, and has been for many years. But he voted for this measure. If he hadn't, I bet he'd have a serious primary opponent next year.

Tom Robinson

trob November 8, 2009 - 6:41pm

if progressives (I thought I

if progressives (I thought I was one but my card must need a new stamp) think the AMA is corrupt,

Check.

and the insurance industry is corrupt,

Check.

this puritancal line of thinking starts to make most everyone wrong in America. Pretty soon the whole nation sucks.

Well, to judge by established results...

...check.

chalo November 9, 2009 - 1:41am

If anyone think

This a 'betrayal' they should have their head examined. This victory was huge. It forms the backbone and path to healthcre reform that will provide coverage to 50 million more Americans mostly children. Amazing. One of the best moments for congress. This has been 80 yeArs in the making.

Scotjen61 November 8, 2009 - 3:49pm

Do you have a wife or daughters?

It forms a backbone alright, on the backs of women.

Tina November 8, 2009 - 8:17pm

Yes, I have a wife. And I've

Yes, I have a wife. And I've supported choice since it was voted in by initiative in Washington State three years before Roe v. Wade. That's about forty years of supporting abortion-on-demand.

Please don't question people's feminism or support for women's right to choose because they support this healthcare compromise, Tina. This is exactly the puritanism that can sink the left; the Republicans relish these squabbles, and want to drive every wedge they can into the Democrats' wide coalition.

Tom Robinson

trob November 8, 2009 - 11:36pm

the Republicans relish these

the Republicans relish these squabbles

Still don't care what Republicans think.

Lesly November 8, 2009 - 11:59pm

trob

scotjen: ..This a 'betrayal' they should have their head examined. This victory was huge. It forms the backbone and path to healthcre reform that will provide coverage to 50 million more Americans mostly children. Amazing. One of the best moments for congress.

I was questioning scotjen since I wondered if he considered the implications for women in his putting it on his best moment in congress list. This wedge was caused by a democrat not a republican and I do not have to be quiet and take one for the team, especially for a crappy watered down plan. And I do not need my head examined! This is not about puritanism its about core democratic principles.

Tina November 9, 2009 - 12:21am

What's funny to me is all

What's funny to me is all day yesterday Pelosi and a few others were assuring us that members of this Democratic pro-life coalition would vote for the bill as long as they were allowed an up or down vote on the amendment. Out of 40, only 1 ended up voting for the main bill. LOL

Lesly November 9, 2009 - 1:22am

No, It's Not Okay

one pissed off mouse

Tina November 8, 2009 - 8:06am

Hello? The only thing we know for sure is...

...the house passed a bill AND it includes an obscene rider denying payment for a womans abortion. Beyond that; what the hell bill did THEY pass? Absolute bullshit and once again the North American people are being handed shit and told it's fillet mignon. Fuck that!!!!!
Single payer or bust! And somebody shoot that asshole Stupack (just kidding) ;)

"We're all of us children in a vast kindergarten trying to spell God's name with the wrong alphabet blocks." ~ Edwin Arlington Robinson

Celsius 233 November 8, 2009 - 9:25am

I hope

that the Stupak Amendment gets gutted, and i'm sorry to say that he is my representative.

I've read a lot about how this will hurt Dems who voted for it (and obviously the guy who wrote it). It probably won't hurt Stupak politically. His district is massive, all of the U.P. and the top third of the lower peninsula. It is overwhelmingly rural and mostly conservative with some libertarian leanings. The two cities with universities in his district tend blue and those have the highest population concentrations.

Bart wins the Dem voters because he's a Dem (and good lord, you should see some of the political misfits the Republicans run against him), and he wins a great many Republican votes. Not at all uncommon to hear "I vote straight ticket Republican except Stupak."

The GOP has been making noise about picking off his seat for years, but they never quite manage. I don't see a successful primary challenge, and frankly a more liberal candidate will almost certainly lose the race. Just the logistics of campaigning in a district that covers 25,000 sq miles of mostly rural, conservative backwaters really does weigh against a liberal candidate. And when the biggest city is only 20,000 in a district with more than 650,000 residents, the take the blue cities to outweigh the red countryside just doesn't work.

Lex November 8, 2009 - 11:20am

Wedge issue...

Obviously. And we are falling for it.

creativelcro November 8, 2009 - 12:12pm

but why

would the Democrats drive a wedge into their own issue? And Ian's (i believe it was him) analysis that if the Stupak amendment makes into the final bill it will set a precedent on abortion coverage. Granted, it is not, as far as i know, a terribly expensive procedure. Still, it's the thought that counts.

Lex November 8, 2009 - 12:28pm

Because some of them are not Dems.

...

creativelcro November 8, 2009 - 3:18pm

Lieberman the media wh*ore

FEEL THE JOEMENTUM.... There was a report this week that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), despite threats of joining Republican efforts to kill health care reform, has quietly told the Senate Democratic leadership that, when push comes to shove, he won't support a filibuster. Both the leadership and the independent senator denied the reports.

If it is an elaborate ploy for Lieberman to get leverage and attention, he's really milking it. Indeed, this morning on "Fox News Sunday," the former Democrat certainly didn't seem to be going through the motions.

As Amanda Terkel reported, Lieberman still opposes the existing plan, and is pointing to the public option as the deal-breaker.

LIEBERMAN: A public option plan is unnecessary. It has been put forward, I'm convinced, by people who really want the government to take over all of health insurance. They've got a right to do that; I think that would be wrong.

But worse than that, we have a problem even greater than the health insurance problems, and that is a debt -- $12 trillion today, projected to be $21 trillion in 10 years.

WALLACE: So at this point, I take it, you're a "no" vote in the Senate?

LIEBERMAN: If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote because I believe debt can break America and send us into a recession that's worse than the one we're fighting our way out of today. I don't want to do that to our children and grandchildren.

more at Political Animal

Tina November 8, 2009 - 12:56pm

At this point I hope it dies

At this point I hope it dies in the Senate. I've been against this thing since Obama started holding private meetings with insurance companies, promised drug companies there wouldn't be price controls and single-payer was off the table.

Hell, at this point I hope Republicans take the majority next year. If Congress is gonna fuck me, it's somewhat understandable when I'm getting fucked by the right party.

Lesly November 8, 2009 - 2:19pm

So you're setting up the

"Progressives for Republicans" office?

Man, I don't get this. As soon as Republicans take over Congressional committees, any chance of progressive legislation is structurally doomed. Why would you want that?

Tom Robinson

trob November 8, 2009 - 6:44pm

So you're setting up the

So you're setting up the "Progressives for Republicans" office?

Yes, by staying home.

As soon as Republicans take over Congressional committees, any chance of progressive legislation is structurally doomed. Why would you want that?

Because there is no progressive legislation going through Congress with Democrats in control. Sorry man, still can't get over the bailout that nearly every Democrat voted for except true progressives and a few token loonies like Ron Paul. And they're not done bending us over on that front:

Sarbanes-Oxley was passed, almost unanimously, by a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-controlled Senate. Now a Democratic Congress is gutting it with the apparent approval of the Obama administration.

The House Financial Services Committee this week approved an amendment to the Investor Protection Act of 2009 — a name George Orwell would appreciate — to allow most companies to never comply with the law, and mandating a study to see whether it would be a good idea to exempt additional ones as well.

I understand there's hope that the amendment won't make it if/when the Senate and House versions are reconciled, but the way the Democratic Party has been acting since it amended FISA last year makes me question why any liberal/progressive/Democrat keeps giving this party the benefit of the doubt.

The party of FDR is dead. Stop hoping.

Lesly November 8, 2009 - 8:10pm

Sotamayor is the same as

Sotamayor is the same as Roberts? Wilderness bills the same under Obama as Bush? Think we'll invade two more countries while a Dem is in the White House? And you think Dems support lesbians and gays just like Republicans??

I've worked with Russians, Venezulans, Filipinas, and Lebanese now living in America -- all legitimate immigrants -- who love this country in ways you seem to have scrapped. They don't hold this sort of cynical broadbrush assessment of those who are governing. They are delighted to live in such a free country with such choices and such discussions.

I can't believe I have to give this kind of pep talk. But please don't stay home and hand it over to fascists -- a few more votes for Gore in 2000 and Bush never would have been president.

There is a difference between these parties, and it's huge.

Tom Robinson

trob November 8, 2009 - 11:47pm

I don't know why you're

I don't know why you're mentioning Sotomayor, but now that you have, choosing her is another example of "the left" appeasing the right. Besides, every time 21 Century Democrats or whomever call me for money they don't wanna hear me "whine". I'm the new, new radical leftist. Huzzah!

It seems the fascists will run government no matter how I vote. Really, if Democrats aren't going to live up to the GOP Communist meme they shouldn't bother. Compromise is another word for corporate giveaway.

Lesly November 9, 2009 - 12:05am

Sotamayor is the same as

I can't believe I have to give this kind of pep talk. But please don't stay home and hand it over to fascists -- a few more votes for Gore in 2000 and Bush never would have been president.

There is a difference between these parties, and it's huge.

Tom Robinson

trob November 8, 2009 - 11:47pm

I saw a graph...

of the premiums.

For someone earning a hundred grand it amounts to $20 grand a year.

Go to jail and/or be fined if you don't buy insurance.

Insurance companies should do well.

On the other hand, if this passes, it won't fly where I live. Right, wrong or indifferent, this won't fly. What are they going to do, lock up the whole county?

I did inhale.

Don November 8, 2009 - 3:10pm

This has been sold as good for kids etc.

Tangentially related. Bottom line, big pharma and big insurance made out big time. This isn't soicalism, it's fascism, pure and simple.

The money shot: 1/2 of the bailout money could have paid all mortgages on every home loan in the USand all credit balances on every credit card...

This is more of the same. Fraud.

I did inhale.

Don November 8, 2009 - 8:17pm

Don't Forget Wall Street...,

..., they will make out as well as the health insurance companies. The new money the health insurers take in doesn't go into "research & development" or "raw materials" to "expand production". All that new money from mandatory coverage will go to executive pay and to Wall Street. Yeah..., they will have to hire a few more office assistants to count the money as it passes through their hands on the way to the Banksters.

This is every bit as much a give-a-way to the Banksters as it is to the health insurance companies.

Scott R. November 9, 2009 - 9:02am

Do you believe in equal rights for women?

from dkos:

I'm Done Talking About Abortion
by Angry Mouse

Sun Nov 08, 2009 at 01:06:19 PM PST

Something clicked for me last night, as I watched the scum of the Democratic party vote against me.

We've been having the wrong fight.

Because it's not about abortion. It's not about religious beliefs. It's not about whether it's okay in certain circumstances, but wrong in others.

"Partial birth" abortion, parental notification, waiting periods, mandated lectures from doctors about what characteristics your fetus might have had -- it's not about that.

It's about something much more simple.

Either women are full and equal citizens of this country, with the exact same rights that men have -- including autonomy of our bodies -- or we are not.

That's it.

And it's time for Democrats to choose a side.

Tina November 8, 2009 - 9:09pm

Democrats choose a side?

Democrats are the worst sort of scum; they go which ever way the wind blows (or so they think). I'll give republicans only one thing; as fucked as they are they do make principled stands on issues and drive them hard. Dems are unprincipled whores.
Loved your post and it's SPOT ON!

"We're all of us children in a vast kindergarten trying to spell God's name with the wrong alphabet blocks." ~ Edwin Arlington Robinson

Celsius 233 November 9, 2009 - 10:05am

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