Senate Democrats: Reconciliation Still Possible Even With Health Care Summit

Senate Democrats are confirming comments last week from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a top aide and saying that the reconciliation idea to railroad the pro-abortion government-run health care bill through the Senate is on the table even with the upcoming White House health care summit.

They say there is no need to abandon the controversial idea even though Obama is engaging in a publicity campaign to try to find more support for the bill, which contains massive abortion funding.

The nationally televised summit is set for next Thursday, February 25, but pro-abortion Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, tells Roll Call there is no reason to cast aside the reconciliation idea.

“I think it should be constantly pursued,” he said when asked if Democrats should put aside the plan.

“I think the Republicans are pretty committed to the notion that obstructing everything that President Obama would like to accomplish is very key to their base and their political success,” Whitehouse added. “I don't see them departing from that strategy.”

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Pelosi Aide: Health Care Summit a Trick, Strategy on Pro-Abortion Bill Decided

cross-posted from A Catholic View

The Republicans have nothing to gain by participating in this stunt.

President Barack Obama has proposed a bipartisan health care summit for later this month that Republican detractors bill as a publicity stunt designed to generate more support for the flailing pro-abortion health care bill. Now, an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi essentially admitted that's the case.

In comments reported by Congress Daily, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s top health care aide Wendell Primus admitted top Democrats have already decided on the strategy to pass the Senate's government-run health care bill that funds abortions and has other pro-abortion problems.

Primus explained that the Senate will use the controversial reconciliation strategy that will have the House approve the Senate bill and both the House and Senate okaying changes to the bill that the Senate will sign off on by preventing Republicans from filibustering.

“The trick in all of this is that the president would have to sign the Senate bill first, then the reconciliation bill second, and the reconciliation bill would trump the Senate bill,” Primus said at the National Health Policy Conference hosted by Academy Health and Health Affairs.

“There's a certain skill, there's a trick, but I think we'll get it done,” he said.

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Barack Obama: It's all about him, not about us

 Barack Obama continues to display his incessant narcissim and desire for control, even in the face of the tragic circumstances that this country and many of its citizens find themselves in, as a result of his actions and those of other politicians.

In the video clip below, Barack Obama tells the tale of a lady who wanted to be buried in an Obama t-Shirt. The crowd laughs, but Obama is dead serious.  This story is about him, not about the poor woman who was without health care.

My family has been without health care (and we desperately need coverage) for some time now, but there is no way I would ever wear an Obama t-shirt! Barack Obama is the hero of the culture of death -- he and his phony "health care" plan supports abortion, euthanasia, and he wants to bankrupt this country with it . It is not health care -- it's death care! Health care is all about him, not about the people who need it. He is obsessed with obtaining power and control over everything -- even over the lives of the people in this country.

Obama Plans Televised Health Care Summit to Persuade Republicans to Back Bill

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Unbelieveable...it couldn't be more clear that Americans do NOT want government-run healthcare, but Barry keeps pushing it. Personally, I don't think Republicans have anything to gain by participating in this charade.

President Barack Obama is planning a televised health care summit later this month in an effort to salvage the pro-abortion government-run health care bill. The plan is an effort to revive his sagging polling numbers and that of the legislation that has seen just one Republican support it in Congress.

White House officials say the February 25 meeting is not an attempt to start over on the health care bill but is ostensibly a lobbying and public relations effort.

“I want to come back [after the Presidents Day congressional recess] and have a large meeting — Republicans and Democrats — to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward,” Obama told CBS anchor Katie Couric in a Sunday interview.

Obama claimed he wants to "look at the Republican ideas that are out there.”

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Democrats Outline Two-Step Method: New Approach to Pro-Abortion Health Care

They are determined to ram this immoral and unjust legislation down our throats!

In response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Wednesday night, top Democrats today outlined a new two-step approach to approving a government-run health care bill. The hope to approve smaller bills that are more popular and then move to the massive pro-abortion bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised today that Congress will approve a health care bill while Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlined the two-step plan.

Pelosi said Congress "must take whatever time it takes" but explained how the House and Senate would likely tackle smaller bills to promote parts of the government-run health care bill.

The bills themselves could come packed with abortion funding if language similar to the Hyde or Stupak Amendment is not included.

Read the rest of the story here.

US bishops: Enact genuine health reform, oppose current language on abortion, conscience protection

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging members of Congress to “come together and recommit themselves to enact genuine health care reform that will protect the life, dignity, consciences and health of all.”

“The health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority, which is to ensure that affordable, quality, life-giving care is available to all,” the bishops write. “Now is not the time to abandon this task, but rather to set aside partisan divisions and special interest pressures to find ways to enact genuine reform.”

“The U.S. Catholic bishops continue to urge the House and Senate to adopt legislation that ensures access to quality, affordable, life giving health care for all; retains longstanding requirements that federal funds not be used for elective abortions or plans that include them, and effectively protects conscience rights; and, protects the access to health care that immigrants currently have and removes current barriers to access.”
The bishops reiterated their serious concerns about the health care legislation that has been passed by the House and Senate.

Disappointingly, the Senate-passed bill in particular does not meet our moral criteria on life and conscience. Specifically, it violates the longstanding federal policy against the use of federal funds for elective abortions and health plans that include such abortions -- a policy upheld in all health programs covered by the Hyde Amendment as well as in the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and now in the House-passed “Affordable Health Care for America Act.” We believe legislation that fails to comply with this policy and precedent is not true health care reform and should be opposed until this fundamental problem is remedied.

The bill passed by the House (and to a lesser extent the Senate-passed bill) recognizes the need to protect conscience rights on abortion. However, provisions in both bills pose a threat to conscience that is not limited to abortion. That threat needs to be removed before any final bill is passed.

The January 26 letter was written by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities; Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Committee on Migration.

• Letter to Congress (USCCB) 

~ Via CWN.

Rep. Pence: Abortion language helped cripple Senate health care bill

Following Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) statement that she didn’t think it's possible to pass the Senate version of the health care bill in the House, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said that the pro-abortion language in the bill played a “critical role” in its demise.

During an interview with Cybercast News at last Friday’s March for Life in Washington D.C., Rep. Pence credited “the pro-life Republicans and Democrats who took a stand in the House of Representatives on the traditional language that was encompassed first in the Hyde Amendment and then in the Stupak-Pitts Amendment,” noting that their work contributed immensely to the current situation of health care reform.

Unlike the House version of the health care bill, which included Hyde amendment restrictions on the federal funding of abortion in the Stupak-Pitts amendment, the Senate version mandated all federally funded health insurance policies to have one option that included abortion.

The Senate bill also included what Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called an “accounting procedure” that earmarked a portion of every premium in the health care exchange for a fund that would pay for abortions.

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