Congressional Republican representatives express gratitude to their provisional allies, Blue Dog Democrats in Congress, for blocking action on health care reform.
Blue Dog Democrats in Congress played a "magnificent" role in blocking health care reform during the Clinton administration and now, under the "courageous" and "smart" leadership of House Pro-Life Caucus leader and Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, and with the support and prayers of Republicans categorically opposed to the Democratic Party's health care reform effort, the Blue Dogs may be able to do it again.
That's what Stupak's caucus co-chair Chris Smith (R-NJ) told his audience at a "townhall" panel event last Friday at the Family Research Council Action's Washington DC 2009 Values Voter Summit {see video, below}. Another Republican at the event, Tom Price (R-GA), suggested that lockstep GOP opposition to health care reform affords the Blue Dogs "an opportunity to show some backbone" and "stand up to their leadership to say 'no more will we allow this travesty to go on.'"
Besides leading anti-abortion Democrats in the House, Stupak is a longtime member of the mainly-Republican radical free-market, union-busting theocratic Washington fundamentalist group known as "The Family," which runs the "C Street House" registered as a church where Bart Stupak has enjoyed Christian fellowship and cheap rent for years. Stupak's former "C Street" housemate Senator James DeMint (R-S. Carolina) has vowed to make the fight against health care reform President Barack Obama's "Waterloo".
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While Stupak, who leads a substantial block of antiabortion Democrats in Congress, has publicly indicated that his support for a health care bill is contingent on preventing federal money from going to pay for abortions, he has co-sponsored, along with his fellow long-time Family member GOP Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA), a health care amendment that would have barred {
http://mediamatters.org/research/200908280044 } not only publicly but also privately funded abortion coverage in a national health care exchange system: a requirement which would make abortions unavailable to most Americans. The Stupak/Pitts Amendment has been repeatedly blocked by House Democratic Party leadership.
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Stupak's statements also suggest he is opposed to a health care system which acknowledges any basic reproductive rights at all. On Wednesday September 23rd, in an interview {
http://www.ncregister.com/daily/stupak_view_from_the_house/#When:18:12:56Z } for the National Catholic Register, which bills itself as the nation's biggest Catholic pro-life publication, Bart Stupak warned that under public health care options, "At least one dollar of your money will go to supplement reproductive rights or abortion services."
While Stupak has been careful to avoid giving the impression that he is categorically opposed to any health care reform bill, his associates in the powerful, secretive, and anti-democratic Washington Christian fundamentalist association known as The Family, or The Fellowship {
http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/03/857959.aspx }, have led some of the most virulent opposition to health care reform and especially a "public option".
Much more at the link *including transcript of the video* so please click though to read:
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