Legal Commentary

Stupak, The Blue Dogs And The Progressive Block

By Big Tent Democrat

A health bill is gonna pass. It is going to look like the Senate bill. The question now is who is going to vote for it. Bart Stupak says he can't be bought off:

“There cannot be, in any way, public funding for abortion,” says Stupak. “What the Nelson compromise does is recognize abortion for the first time as a benefit in a federal health plan. It mandates that at least one plan has abortion coverage. Those are drastic changes to the current law.”

He sounds like a No. How many will join him? In any event, the Blue Dogs are coming to the rescue:

Centrist, Blue Dog Democrats are likely to favor the Senate's healthcare bill if it comes up for a vote, one of their members said Wednesday. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), a Blue Dog who voted against the House's healthcare bill in November, said that he and many other centrist Democrats would flip their votes to support the Senate bill if it came up for a vote in the House.

[. . .] 39 Democratic lawmakers voted against the House bill, which passed by a relatively narrow 220-215 vote. If Blue Dogs flip to support the latest iteration of the bill, it could pad Democrats' vote totals, especially as leaders wrangle with abortion rights supporters and opponents' dissatisfaction with the Senate bill's language on abortion.

I think instead of padding the totals, it will likely give Progressives the freedom to vote No on the bill. This will be an interesting vote. It could become a Center-Right bill, according to the votes. Which would be a good thing for the chance of future reform.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on December 24, 2009 (boomark / email).