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PDF versionStupak on 'Living Hell'
by Joe Feuerherd on Mar. 18, 2010
Those who have watched Bart Stupak (D-MI) over the years know that he is more a "workhorse" than "showhorse." That's why Rachel Maddow's claims that Stupak is opposing the current health care bill because he wants the publicity strike anyone with any knowledge of the man as ludicrous. (If you click on the link you'll have to endure a short advertisement.)
But I didn't realize, according to this report from The Hill, that he "has never signed up for federal health benefits because he promised voters in 1992 that he wouldn’t until universal healthcare was enacted."
For a short while, back in the 1980s, I worked on Capitol Hill and benefited from the health care plans offered to those who work there. Trust me, it was, and is, very comprehensive coverage. That Stupak refuses that coverage as a matter of principle speaks very well of him. Don't get me wrong: I think Stupak's analysis of the bill is way off, but he's not the caricature that has been painted by many in the "mainstream media."
Mr Stupak is carrying the
Mr Stupak is carrying the Cross that Catholic politicians both forsake and despise. Indeed powerful Democratic Catholic politicians are now trying their very best to make Stupak's political life "hell". Where are the Bishops of San Franciso, Chicago, Boston, New York? The crucial moment when their voices need to be heard is silence, except for the rustling of a 2700 page bill that will create the largest bureacracy in history. One that will by its very nature, be hostile to Catholic values. Abortion, and soon euthanasia, will be not just tolerated, but promoted, and those good Sisters who declared their support for this monstrosity may soon find themselves having to choose either their religion, or their jobs, as Healthcare goes secular( think public schools and religious values ) The very people that claim to be Catholic are, and will, ram this bill through Congress with little regard for prolife protection. In fact they have politically used the Church and cunningly outmanuvered the Bishops. Through it all the one man whos name has stood for the unborn, is Bart Stupak, a protestant, a Christian, and a decent man. May he be quietly blessed from above for he has the respect of many.
and yet at great personal
and yet at great personal expense he supports "universal healthcare."
Why then does he not now support it?
I am impressed, too, by his
I am impressed, too, by his sticking to his principles when it comes to his own health coverage. But does he not realize he is making it worse by not supporting this bill, which if not universal coverage, is at least a beginning. What a shame that he is so tunnel vision on his abortion view that he will not budge, when most experts are saying there is no provision for federal funding for abortion in this bill, and thereby denies himself and 30 million other Americans, health insurance coverage.
I am also wondering if the congressional health coverage, which you describe as comprehensive, has abortion coverage included in the plan(s). If so, it certainly makes greater hypocrites of those congresspersons who are holding up the people's plan on that point. And why arn't the bishops bent all out of shape over that?
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