It's Thanksgiving week on Capitol Hill, and it looks like the turkeys have fled D.C. for their home states. Their departure followed a tough vote on Saturday night, in which the Senate officially agreed to move forward with Sen. Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) joke of a health care bill. By strict party lines (60-39), the Democrats voted against the American people to railroad their $2.5 trillion legislation to the Senate floor, where debate is expected to begin as early as November 30. Although a handful of Democrats seemed to be teetering on the edge heading into the weekend, others waited until Sen. Harry Reid sweetened the pot until they committed to vote his way.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who was leaning "no" on the motion as recently as last week, held out so that she could extract a high price for her support--$300 million, to be exact. Sen. Reid's "Louisiana Purchase" proved to be the clincher, along with eleventh hour commitments from "pro-life" Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Nebr.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who both voted to advance a bill that specifically funds abortion in at least two new government programs. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was one of several Republicans who made passionate pleas from the Senate floor. "It's arrogant to dump 15 million low-income Americans into a medical ghetto... that none of us or any of our families would ever want to join.
It's arrogant to send to the states, which are going broke, a big chunk of the bill. It's arrogant to tell the American people that the bill will only cost $849 billion and think they're not smart enough to... figure out that it will actually cost $2.5 trillion..." Others like Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), and Mike Johanns (R-Nebr.) made it abundantly clear that voting to proceed meant voting to proceed with federally-funded abortion. Instead of adding the popular Stupak-Pitts language that a bipartisan majority endorsed in the House, Sen. Reid included a provision that expands--not excludes--taxpayer-funded abortion.
To understand the damage that his language could do, check out FRC's comparison of the Stupak amendment with Sen. Reid's abortion provisions. There is still time to change the language, but it will take persistence on everyone's part. One way you can help is to call, email, and visit your Senators' offices over the Thanksgiving break. If your Senators happen to be Republican, contact them anyway and encourage them to keep fighting. If you live in Maine, where it's tough to know what the party loyalties are, push harder.
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