Abortion

DeGette: Stupak Agenda Is Much Wider Restrictions On Abortion

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 5:24PM

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO)

As co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) is leading the fight in the House to strip the Stupak amendment, which would forbid millions of women from buying comprehensive insurance policies that cover abortion, from the final health care bill. And she takes issue with Stupak's interpretation of the events leading up to the vote that completely changed the stakes of reform debate.

"Basically Congressman Stupak moved the goalposts, and I think it really took [House] Speaker [Nancy Pelosi] and other people by surprise," DeGette told me in an exclusive interview.

She says, after his abortion amendments went down in the House Energy and Commerce Committee (a panel on which she also sits), he demanded he get another crack at it when the Rules Committee set the contours of the floor debate.

"After we defeated him in committee," she said, "he said that he wanted to have an amendment in order on the floor... and that if he didn't have his amendment made in order then he had 40 people to vote against the rule."

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Abortion

CREDO To Send Coat Hangers To Pro-Choice Dems Who Voted For Abortion Restriction Amendment

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 4:36PM

Credo Action Pro-Choice Petition Website

This isn't for the squeamish. It's about as hardball and brutal as it gets.

The liberal group CREDO Action will soon ask over 1,000,000 members to sign a petition condemning the Stupak amendment...and with each signature, CREDO will send a coat hanger to the 20 supposedly pro-choice members of Congress who voted for it.

"We know what happens when women are denied access to reproductive health care including abortion," the petition reads. "And we can't go back to an era of coat hangers and back alley abortions. Reconsider your vote on the Stupak Amendment. Tell House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that the final health care bill that emerges from the conference committee can't turn the clock back on women's rights."

The email hasn't been sent yet, but you can read the language below the fold.

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AMA

MoveOn Pulls The Lever, Calls On AMA To Ditch The Chamber

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 2:18PM

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

The liberal group MoveOn is exploiting an interesting opening to both support health care reform and weaken the Chamber of Commerce.

Citing the American Medical Association's endorsement of House health care legislation, and the Chamber of Commerce's unapologetic opposition to it, MoveOn is calling for the AMA and the Chamber to part ways.

MoveOn is calling on their doctors to sign a petition demanding that the AMA pull out.

"The American Medical Association has been running ads for months supporting President Obama's health care plan," reads a letter from MoveOn to supportive doctors.

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Abortion

Stupak Sticks To His Guns, Blames Liberals For Abortion Amendment

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 12:42PM

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI)

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) says that House liberals backed themselves into a wall during health care negotiations, and got stuck with a harsher abortion amendment than they would have had if they'd just played nice. And now, he says, there's no going back.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Stupak says "Speaker Pelosi went to present [House liberals] what she agreed to with us, that it would be part of a manager's amendment.... [T]hey're the ones who insisted, 'No, Stupak doesn't get to go in the manager's amendment, we want it on the floor.' They're the ones who insisted on bringing it to a vote. They're the ones who wanted to vote against me, they were the ones who said they would win this vote."

If they hadn't rejected the Speaker on Friday night, to use their words, there would have been a less restrictive amendment that would have been part of the manager's amendment. They rejected that. They could not live with it. Even the less restrictive language. And therefore the Speaker came back and said, 'Bart, I'm sorry, but our deal's off. So I have no choice, because we made an agreement, I'm gonna have to give you an amendment,' and I said, 'Well, with all due respect, Madame Speaker, I'm not gonna send the amendment we agreed to, because if the deal's off, then I don't have to hold to that agreement, Hyde-lite, and I'm putting up the original Hyde language that I offered in committee, that Joe Pitts and I offered.' That's why it's called the Stupak-Pitts amendment.

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CBO

CBO Senate Health Care Score Now Expected Early Next Week

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 11:06AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Sigh. Washington waited through a slow holiday week with bated breath for a CBO analysis of Senate health care legislation, which had been expected today. But now sources say the report won't likely be ready until early next week.

The development calls into doubt the likelihood that the bill itself will be introduced on the Senate floor next week. Democratic leaders have vowed to post the bill online for 72 hours before moving the bill toward the floor, and in those 72 hours, they will have to corral all Democratic caucus members into agreeing to proceed to debate.

This week, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) suggested Democrats would be lucky to get the bill on to the floor before Thanksgiving recess. Looks like they'll be pushing up against that deadline.

Health Care

Busted! GOP Drops Abortion Coverage For RNC Employees

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 10:15AM

RNC Chairman Michael Steele

Faced with the charge of hypocrisy for providing employees health insurance that covers abortion, the Republican National Committee has moved to strike the benefit from their policy.

"Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose," said chairman Michael Steele. "I don't know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled."

With one exception--Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) who voted 'present'--House Republicans voted unanimously for an amendment to health care legislation that forbids women who receive government insurance subsidies from buying policies that cover abortion.

Of course, given the definition of "insurance," the RNC can only really escape the sin of financing abortions by buying insurance from a company that has a blanket policy against covering abortions.

Chuck Grassley

Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Ventures Into Tentherism

Brian Beutler | November 13, 2009, 9:02AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-TX)

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)--the highest ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee--is unclear about the Constitutionality of current health care legislation, and he's turning for clarity to the Federalist Society.

"I think that's a good question," Sessions said on a panel at the Federalist Society's National Lawyers' Convention. "Matter of fact I met with my staff...we were talking about, and you know what I said Leonard? I said we ought to ask Federalist society folks what they think too. I said let's begin to think about that question and what's the constitutional thing...can the government require to do what we think is in your best interest if you don't think it's in your best interest?"

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, once said there was a bipartisan consensus in favor of individual mandates. But he too seems to have joined the tenther fringe.

You can see the video here. The exchange occurs about 27 minutes in.

CBO

Tomorrow Could Be A Really Big Day For Health Care--Here's Why

Brian Beutler | November 12, 2009, 6:13PM

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been trading options and numbers with the CBO for weeks now, and they're reportedly nearly done. A final analysis on a complete package could be available as early as tomorrow. If that happens, it will be yet another big day for Senate Democrats as they struggle to reach consensus over landmark health care reform legislation.

Once it's unveiled, and the bill meets daylight, it will be crunch time for conservative Democrats--most notably Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln--who have been withholding their commitment to supply the bill much-needed procedural votes until they've had a chance to see it and hear from CBO.

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Abortion

Who Would Be Most Impacted By The Stupak Amendment?

Brian Beutler | November 12, 2009, 2:47PM

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI)

The Stupak amendment has touched off a furious argument among Democratic politicians and elites--one that could tank the entire health care reform project if it's not resolved by the time legislation comes up for a final vote in the House.

For the most part, the argument has been about justice. The Stupak amendment would forbid anybody who receives new government health insurance subsidies from buying policies that cover abortion. So why should women's health care be treated differently than other kinds of health care? Is it fair to prevent women, forced into the health care market, from buying any insurance policy she wants, even if they have some government assistance?

But somewhat less prominently, these same combatants have been at odds about what the practical effect of the Stupak amendment would actually be. There's substantial lack of clarity on that score--many say it's likely that there will be no abortion coverage in the exchange at all, and others hypothesize that, over time, the norms in the exchange will come to dominate the norms across the insurance market. At this point, that's all theoretical. But there is at least some data on the immediate practical implications of the Stupak amendment: It will, at least, directly and immediately impact a small, but growing number of poor and middle-class women.

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Barack Obama

Administration Approvingly Cites Report Critical Of Key Elements Of Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | November 12, 2009, 12:32PM

President Barack Obama

The White House is touting a new report from the typically conservative Business Roundtable, which has some kind things to say about health care reform proposals making their way through Congress.

"A new report released today by the Business Roundtable underscores what experts and businesspeople have told us all along - comprehensive health insurance reform is one of the most important investments we can make in American competitiveness," President Obama said in a statement.

And indeed, the report does have some kind things to say about current legislation. But it isn't wholly positive. "The current proposals are missing some ingredients needed to drive the type of system-wide change that can "bend the future trend" significantly and permanently," the report reads.

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Bart Stupak

Think The Stupak Amendment Is Bad Now? It Could Have Been Worse

Brian Beutler | November 11, 2009, 2:57PM

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI)

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which voted way back in July to advance health care legislation to the House floor. At the time, the legislation stipulated that no federal funds authorized by the bill would be used to pay for abortions, except in cases of incest, risk to the life of the mother, and rape. And at the time, that was good enough.

But even back then, Stupak was trying to strengthen the language in the bill restricting the availability of abortion services under the House health care plan.

A day before the bill passed out of committee, Stupak co-sponsored, and voted for an amendment written by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA)--distinct from the now notorious "Stupak amendment"--that would have limited the government's ability to include abortions in benefits plans to cases of incest, life of the mother, and forcible rape.

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Bart Stupak

Clyburn: Stupak Amendment Won 10 Votes

Brian Beutler | November 11, 2009, 10:15AM

Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC)

On Monday, I noted that 40 Democrats had voted for the Stupak amendment--which would prohibit low- and middle-class women from buying health insurance policies that cover abortion--and then voted for final passage of the health care bill. That's a large number, but a key question remained unanswered: How many of those 40 would have voted against the final bill if the Stupak amendment had failed, or not been given a vote?

Well, House Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) has some answers.

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Barack Obama

Influential Players: How Six Big Stakeholders Shaped Health Care

Brian Beutler | November 11, 2009, 8:39AM

President Barack Obama

The biggest players in the health care reform debate often blur together into a swirl of acronyms and policy jargon. But they're also key to understanding how health care reform has been shaped, and how it's come as far as it has.

At this point in the health care debate, pro-reform groups have spent more money on health care ads than have well-heeled health care opponents. That's a testament to just how important the issue is to the liberal base, but it's also the precise effect President Obama was seeking when he partnered with the health care industry's most powerful stakeholders.

What sets the following six players apart is how they've defied the usual expectations and taken positions that don't easily fit into the usual left vs. right or corporate vs. consumer paradigm.

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Bill Clinton

Clinton To Senate Democrats: Whatever You Do, Don't Lose

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2009, 2:40PM

Fmr. President Bill Clinton

After an hour-long lunch with the Senate Democratic caucus, former President Bill Clinton found himself surrounded by dozens of reporters, and summarized his message as one of the urgency of action. "The worst thing to do is nothing," Clinton said of the party's health care reform push. "We can do so much better."

As they emerged from the lunch one by one, a number of senators echoed this rendering.

"His message was very simply it is so important that this be done, that there are so many people, I think 30 percent of the population he said at one point or another, don't have any health care coverage," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) told TPMDC, "and so the ability to fix the problem is really upon us."

"He made clear that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity," she added, noting that Clinton did not directly address the politically divisive policy aspects of reform--abortion, the public option--in his presentation.

To members who are facing tough re-election races next year (such as fellow Arkansas native Blanche Lincoln) Clinton's message was equally simple: "You're going to do it, and then people are going to begin to see that none of the bad things that people are talking about will come to pass, essentially," Feinstein said.

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Abortion

Key Dem Senators Say Stupak Abortion Amendment Goes Too Far

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2009, 12:54PM

Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)

A number of high-profile senators have come forward today to say that a controversial amendment to House health care legislation that would limit a woman's right to purchase insurance that covers abortions goes too far and should not be a part of the Senate.

At a Capitol Hill event this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid implied that the Stupak amendment exceeds the strictures of the years-old Hyde amendment which prohibits federal funds from financing abortions. "I expect that the bill that will be brought to the floor will ensure..no federal contribution to abortion, and that [the] rights of providers, health care facilities like Catholic hospitals, are protected," Reid said. "The one thing that we're certain to do is to maintain what we have had in the past. I had the good fortune, as did Senator Durbin to serve with Henry Hyde, the Hyde amendment has been a pretty good way to go through this last couple of decades."

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) was more explicit. At a health care event this morning, Cardin said, "The right policy is to avoid coming down on one side or the other on the abortion issue and to handle health care reform as a separate issue."

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Health Care

Timeline: Dem Leaders Differ On Likelihood Of Health Care Debate Before Thanksgiving

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2009, 12:21PM

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)

During a news conference today regarding Republican obstruction of a Veterans bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told reporters that he's confident he will be able to bring his health care bill to the Senate floor next week, after Congress returns from a brief Veterans Day recess, and then pass the bill by Christmas. But the number two man in the caucus, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) was far more cautious, suggesting that debate on the bill may have to wait until after Thanksgiving.

A reporter asked Reid whether he believes his hoped-for time line to begin and end debate on the bill is reasonable. Reid responded, "yes, and yes."

Earlier today, Reid met with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)--a key holdout on the bill, who says he'll filibuster it if it includes a public option. Reid says he's "confident [he and Lieberman] work something out."

Durbin shares that confidence, but isn't so certain about the time line.

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Bart Stupak

Controversial Stupak Amendment Sows Anger, Confusion On Capitol Hill

Brian Beutler | November 9, 2009, 6:55PM

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI)

When Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) authored an amendment several months ago to prohibit federal dollars from being used to pay for insurance policies that cover abortion, Democratic leaders and health care principals didn't take his proposal very seriously. As a result it was never subjected to the sort of rigorous analysis that controversial legislation is often treated to. That was a miscalculation. Liberals were forced this weekend to accept the amendment as the price of passing an otherwise progressive health care bill through the House. And now, everyone on both sides of the abortion issue is scrambling to try to figure out what the amendment's language actually means and the practical effect it would have if enacted into law.

As one House Democratic health care aide put it, "there are a ton of unanswered questions."

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Abortion

Nelson: I'll Filibuster A Health Care Bill That Doesn't Include Strict Abortion Restrictions

Brian Beutler | November 9, 2009, 6:32PM

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) wants Senate health care legislation to contain strict restrictions on abortion funding, much like the House bills now does. And he says he'll filibuster if he doesn't get his way.

"As a pro-life person, I believe that something like the [Rep. Bart] Stupak amendment should be included in the Senate version," Nelson told reporters this evening. "But if it isn't included to that effect, to make it clear that no government money should be used for support, for the subsidies, or direct payments, or even tax credits, should be used to support abortions," he will oppose it.

"If it doesn't make it clear that it does not support abortion, does not pay for abortion, you can be sure I will vote against it."

I asked Nelson if his promise extended to procedural supermajority votes. He had a one word answer: "Yes."

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Health Care

Do or Die: The Six Senators Who Will Decide the Fate of Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | November 9, 2009, 1:46PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid faces a number of obstacles to passing health care reform but his main task is to keep his caucus united for not one, but two, supermajority votes, just to get the reform bill an up or down on the Senate floor. Failure to get 60 votes to push past either of those two procedural chokepoints could derail the reform bill. Here are the six key holdouts Reid must wrangle to reach the magic threshold.

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Health Care

All Eyes On Reid After House Passes Health Care

Brian Beutler | November 9, 2009, 9:34AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

House Democrats have a lot to be smiling about, but they'll also likely be sitting on their thumbs for the next several weeks. After they passed a historic health care bill over the weekend, all eyes turned to the Senate, and specifically to Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose health care bill still hasn't been unveiled.

The White House is still pushing for Congress to complete action on health care by years-end--last week White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel conveyed that message to Reid directly--but before that can happen, members want to see the bill, and before that can happen, the CBO has to weigh in on the package Reid sent their way last month.

There's some speculation that CBO numbers could be available by the end of the week, but no guarantees, and members will almost certainly be back in their states for Veterans Day before anything official comes down the pipe.

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