Stupak: I Have Votes to Remove Abortion Funding

Good, now let's see if he actually uses them.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com yesterday that he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will vote to kill the health-care bill if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) does not allow a floor vote on his amendment to prohibit federal funds from going to insurance plans that cover abortion.

Under Stupak’s plan, the approximately 40 Democrats in his camp would join with all House Republicans in voting to defeat the special House “rule” that would set the terms for debating and amending the health-care bill on the House floor when it is brought up for a final vote. If a majority of the House does not first vote to approve this rule, the health-care bill itself cannot be brought to the floor.

“We will try to—we, there’s about 40 likeminded Democrats like myself—we’ll try to take down the rule,” Stupak told CNSNews.com. “If all 40 of us vote in a bloc against the rule—because we think the Republicans will join us—we can defeat the rule. The magic number is 218. If we can have 218 votes against the rule, we win.”

Wonder if any of the 40 are the five Wisconsin Democrats.  My guess is unlikely -- well, maybe Ron Kind might be one of the 40 -- because the bulk of them are pretty big and tight with the abortion lobby out in DC.

Or, they could be just completely oblivious to what's in the bill?  Kagen was nice enough to post an interview he did in August with a Minocqua-area newspaper on his campaign website, here's what he said:

Q.Will taxes be used to pay for abortions?

A.There is no funding for death panels or abortion in the bill.

Wait a sec, Kagen's said a million times he's read the bill, H.R. 3200.  He wouldn't be lying, would he?  Perhaps he missed it?

Maybe he and Stupak can talk about this 'little disagreement' between the two of them when they settle their annual bet between the Marinette and Menominee high school football game.