Gibbs: Obama not taking sides in Stupak amendment debate [View All]

[joeycola]

so, we now have the WH fence sitting on this issue!!


http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/67001-gibbs-obama-not-taking-sides-in-stupak-amendment-debate

Gibbs: Obama not taking sides in Stupak amendment debate

By Tony Romm - 11/09/09 02:38 PM ET

The White House on Monday signaled it would keep its distance in the increasingly vocal debate over whether health insurance reform should include language related to abortion.

When asked whether the president supported Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) amendment to prohibit the public insurance plan from covering abortion services, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged the question -- multiple times.

"Well, ask me that right before Christmas and the end of the New Year," Gibbs said during today's press briefing, noting the president still expected to sign a healthcare bill before the year's end.
....................

However, a number of liberal-leaning Democrats have since insisted they will not lend their votes to any conference report that contains even a variation of Stupak's efforts -- a position that puts the Democratic leadership in quite a political bind.

"I would expect that we would go over to the White House next week -- and we're going to tell the president the same thing we're telling the speaker," Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus Chair Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) told MSNBC earlier today, reaffirming her opposition to the amendment.

"A large group of us are saying that if this language is contained in the conference report, then we will not vote for the conference report," she added. "So it needs to be stripped out in the conference."

..................