Breaking News: Sources are telling NBC News that Rep. Bart Stupak WILL VOTE for the health-care bill.The vote will come very soon. CNN backs MSNBC's call.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, announces that he, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House have reached an agreement that protects "the sanctity of life in health care reform."The rules debate continues as the GOP tries to run out the clock, but this is starting to look like a win for the Dems. Will the Senate complete the victory?
Stupak and other anti-abortion Democrats had said they would oppose the Senate bill because of concerns it would expand federal funding of abortion.
On the other hand, the GOP is losing with all the grace and dignity that you've come to expect.
Moments ago, while members were on the floor for a vote, a protester stood up in the visitor's gallery and began shouting "Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill!" Clerks quickly removed him. But as they were doing so, a number of Republicans--at least half a dozen, from what I could see from a few feet away--were cheering the man.This isn't over. In fact, the real battle is just beginning. You thought they were deranged to the point of violence before? Just wait.
Representative Barney Frank, who was the target of yesterday's homophobic epithets, told reporters he was "appalled" and that he felt the Republicans "were encouraging him to resist. ... I've never seen members of the House cheering on a guy resisting being kicked out of the gallery. It's a dangerous situation and the Republicans are cheering him on."
Frank says he approached one of his Republican colleagues--I think he said it was Missouri's Roy Blunt--and told them his caucus should not be stoking this kind of emotion. Blunt apparently replied by saying he wasn't one of the Republicans cheering.
Meanwhile, conservative activists are staging a rally on the North lawn, which is right outside the House chamber. A trio of Republicans went to the House balcony and started waving hand-made signs saying "Kill...the...bill" as the crowd chanted. As a colleague of mine remarked, that scene was more farcical than scary--like a scene out of Evita. But there's something just a bit unsettling about all of this.
[UPDATE 5:30 PM] And it wouldn't be a day without Winger death threats against the President for the tyranny of expanding halth care coverage to people who don't have it.
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3 comments:
That's the thing, Zandar: even when the Senate passes the fixes, there will still be more fixes to do. Expect Dems to talk about the fixes they need to do when they run for reelection.
Reform isn't a bill, it's a project. NO great reform has ever passed in one shot: two civil rights bills, Social Security was incomplete, etc. etc. etc. The Dems will not be the party that fixed health care; they'll be the party that IS FIXING health care.
Oh I know. It's just a milepost. A very big and important milepost, but the road is long ahead.
It's not quite as long as it was, say, 2008.
I am all for open and sincere debate. Clearly the RepubliCAN'Ts do not have the truth on their side so they must resort to negativity and obstruction.
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