From an email ostensibly from Obama mailed by Organizing for America:
> This evening, at 11:15 p.m., the House of Representatives voted to pass
> their health insurance reform bill. Despite countless attempts over
> nearly a century, no chamber of Congress has ever before passed
> comprehensive health reform. This is history.
This message included a pitch for donations.
My response:
This is history insofar as any event in Congress is history. Did this bill remove the parasitic health insurance industry from standing between people and their health care? No. Does this bill stand between women and access to abortion services, making a legal, reasonable, medical procedure even harder for lower and middle income women to find and afford? Yes.
Did you, Mr. Obama, do anything to apply pressure to the reactionary "Democrats" such as Stupak and the rest of the Lap Dogs from making this bill as inefficient and expensive as possible? Doesn't look like it.
Once more, as your Economic Team has done with the financial industry, you have talked about change without actually applying the necessary pressure to create it.
You continue to be a servant to the corporations at the expense of the well-being of the rest of us.
And you want our money to support that? Shame on you.
Bill Michtom
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Comments
The Stupak-Pitt Amendment prevents providers who get any federal money from providing abortions unless the woman's life is in danger or the pregnancy is a result of rape.
That means that a company has to choose between the tens of millions of customers who get other than abortion and providing abortions.
This effects every woman who gets insurance through the new, "historic" program, private companies as well as a so-called public option.
The claim that is being made by the Dems is that there will be a special rider (more money for women) that a woman can get exclusively for abortions. But, the few states that have this arrangement have no one providing the service.
Obama was quick to threaten the Progressive Caucus with no DNC money when they were going to vote against war funding, but did nothing to stop the Lap Dogs from doing anything they could that would block true reform.
Here's Obama talking to Katie Couric:
"As you know, I'm pro choice. But I think we also have a tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded health care. Rather than wade into that issue at this point, I think that it's appropriate for us to figure out how to just deliver on the cost savings, and not get distracted by the abortion debate at this station."
The Hyde Amendment is a "tradition," sort of like Thanksgiving, I assume. And the safety and health of women is a "distraction."