Saturday, March 20, 2010

It Ain't Over Till The Fat Lady Sings

I reconciled Hannity and The Hill's current list of votes (3/20 as of 3pm est) and by looking for overlaps I came up with 34 solid no votes with 6 still leaning no. To kill the bill we need 38 plus all Republicans.

Any 4 of these 6 are needed- Carney, Dahlkemper, Davis(Tn), Matheson, Nye,and Tanner.

The Democrats do not have the votes no matter what Fox or any other networks are saying.

Pelosi dropping the abortion language does not come from having a strong position, rather it comes from threats of defections being made by extreme leftists who do want abortion and will not give in to Stupak.

This will be their downfall.


Steve
+++++++++++++++++++++++


Pelosi to Abortion Opponents: No Health Care Deal

FOXNews.com

Washington, Friday, March 19, 2010.(AP)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday that she will not cut a deal with a group of anti-abortion Democrats to include tighter restrictions on abortion funding in the final health care bill, suggesting that she believes she has enough votes to pass the legislation without them.

Pelosi told Fox News that there will be no vote on a separate bill adding abortion restrictions championed by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. to the final legislation.

Earlier Saturday, members of the House Rules Committee, which began deliberations that will set the terms for Sunday's expected vote in the full House, told Fox News that no changes would be made to the abortion funding restrictions contained in the Senate version of the bill.

Stupak, who has led the charge to include in the final bill tougher anti-abortion language passed last November by the House, postponed a Saturday morning news conference in which he was expected to announce a deal with Pelosi.

Stupak's office told Fox News that the news conference was postponed due to "scheduling issues," not because there was a breakdown in abortion talks.

A spokeswoman for Stupak added, "discussions are continuing."

On Friday, Stupak -- with eight Democrats and one Republican as co-sponsors -- introduced a resolution that would insert his abortion restrictions as a "correction" to the underlying bill. That would have added new complications to the already complex strategy Democrats are pursuing to pass the bill, requiring additional floor votes on a highly charged issue.

Stupak and his backer were hoping they had enough leverage to force the leadership to yield to their demand.

But Rep. Henry Waxman said Saturday that "the likely outcome" is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi will move ahead without the votes of a group of abortion opponents who want tougher restrictions in the bill against taxpayer funding for the procedure.

Waxman is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and he helped write the 10-year, $940 billion bill.

An abortion rights group left Pelosi's office Saturday morning and said another vote on the Stupak language is not going to happen.

The current legislation would allow private insurance plans operating in a new insurance marketplace to cover abortions, provided they do not use taxpayer funds.

What makes that tricky is that many of the plans' customers would be receiving federal subsidies to help pay their premiums. So the legislation requires plans offering abortion coverage to collect a separate premium from their policyholders. Those separate checks would have to be kept in a different account from money for other health care services.

Federal law since the 1970s has forbidden the use of taxpayer funds to cover abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. But many private insurance plans cover abortion as a legal medical procedure. How to deal with the divisive issue in health care overhaul was a source of controversy from the beginning.

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