I met Bart Stupak for the first time in the early nineties...either the winter of 1993 or 1994. I was volunteering at a sled dog race in the UP and he bought hot chocolate from me. Since that time I corresponded with him on numerous issues, got to sit in his desk when I was a Junior in High School as part of the National Young Leaders Conference (behind a "Vote for NAFTA, be Sorry Ever Afta'" bumper sticker) and recently had a conversation with him at our state Democratic Convention about the availability of network television in rural areas (it sucks).
I lived in Michigan's first district from my birth in 1978 until my high school graduation in 1996. My parents still live there. My father is a lifelong conservative, Christian Republican.... though he's not a church-going Christian and for the most part his conservative beliefs aren't from the Christian angle. My mom is a lifelong open minded Democrat. When I came out to my parents my Dad said to me, "Well... I don't suddenly support gay marriage because of this."
Then he hugged me. Good people. Anyway back to Bart.
What he isn't is a member of a Shadowy theocratic conspiracy intending to remake America's constitution in the mold of the Ten Commandments. That's pretty easy. I mean read the diary. It says "Stupak lives in this house and he's pro life. Now here's ten thousand bad things other people that live in the same house did. See how evil he must be?" You might as well go lock up Dennis Wilson for having Charlie Manson at HIS house... OK well I think Dennis Wilson is dead but you get the idea.
Stupak he is a few things. He's an Eagle Scout. He's got a law degree (in another diary about him someone mentioned that he was 'singularly uneducated' or some other bigoted bullshit you'd say about someone who represents a rural area) and he's a former Michigan State Police officer.
Politically, he's definitely a "moderate"--breaking with the progressives in his caucus on two specific issues. He gets 100% from the National Rifle Association, and they always endorse him over whoever the Republican is. He also usually gets all the official pro-life endorsements. These things sort of work to his advantage politically, because the people of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan are soundly to the left on everything EXCEPT guns and abortion. On other issues though he's actually pretty liberal. He voted against NAFTA. He pledged when running for congress 17 years ago that he wouldn't accept Government Health Insurance until it was available to the people in his district too, a pledge he has kept to this day.
Memorably in the health care debate, he called out bullshit insurance fatcats on the practice of rescission in an exchange you might have seen before:
On the abortion issue, I think he's just plain wrong. Whoever you are, you probably do too. On the gun issue, I think he's mostly wrong. Dunno where you stand on that.
But he IS a Democrat. He is NOT a Blue Dog. And he is NOT a Theocrat. He is part of a faction of the Democratic Party that I do not belong to and that I do not agree with. But that's it. And it's a faction of the Democratic party that--as unfortunate as this reality is--controls something like forty house seats, and that's reality.
So why is he ACTUALLY wrong, and what can be done about it?
Let's not bet around the bush... people who are pro-life want to end abortion. Period. It's a given that we disagree and we clearly don't understand where each other are coming from on that issue, so there's no sense trying to turn this into an actual "abortion" debate that neither side can win.
For this to be winnable (even debatable without fracturing any caucuses) we have to turn it into a MONEY debate.
Stupak and his allies want language similar to the Hyde Amendment inserted into HR 3200. Thus far, Pelosi has said they won't get a vote on it. If it's true that they have 40 votes to send the bill back to the rules committee (they don't have any interest in stopping it but are willing to delay it on "principle") Pelosi might have to rethink that strategy.
But to what end? If the Hyde language would prevent any plan in the exchange or the public option from covering abortion, the Hyde language won't sell with progressives.
So like it or not, we still need to do SOMETHING. Something BEYOND painting elaborate Dan Brownesque fantasies about Stupak. Something that finds common ground so we can get the 99.9% of reforms everybody wants, or calls his bluff so we get 100%.
I don't think anything short of the Hyde language will satisfy Stupak's entire block, so you have to look instead at peeling enough away so that a vote will pass. What might do that?
As it's currently constructed, the Capps Amendment says the following things:
- Anyone who opts into the Public Option and opts NOT to have abortion coverage will NOT have their premiums go towards covering abortions.
- Every exchange must contain at least one plan that covers abortions, and at least one plan that does not cover abortions.
The reason that that's not good enough for the forty is that in their mind once you've paid money to the Government, it's federal money whether you collected it via taxes or not... so the Hyde Amendment (which whether we like it or not IS the law) should say you can't spend ANY public option money on abortions.
The Exchange is a bit trickier, since people are purchasing insurance through the exchange. I'll be honest, I don't have a proposed "Solution" for that, since I don't think it's a problem.
Mind you, I don't think the public option bit is a problem either... but maybe we can find a workaround for it.
Perhaps some kind of intercessory non-profit for people who want reproductive coverage on the public option. If the premiums that are being paid in by people who want the "Public" option and abortion coverage never reach the federal government, they're never Federal funds. Whatever non-profit steps up and fills that role has to follow the same rules as the Public Option... charge the same premiums, reimburse at the same amounts... You couldn't even give them tax breaks for doing it, but you'd be guaranteeing them at least two and a half million customers that they wouldn't otherwise have and you may be isolating "Federal" money to the point where you can get 10-15 people to bail on Stupak's bloc.
Sound a little too co-opy for you? It sounds a little too co-opy for me too.
The only other option I can think of is that the TRUE public option contain zero direct abortion coverage (I know, I know, stick with me) but when they purchase the PO through the exchange, there's a box they can check that hooks them up with an additional rider from one of the private companies in the exhcange.
I don't like the Hyde Amendment... if I thought we had time to swap out the Supreme Court and get it overturned I'd say lets do that. But until that time the people who are talking about blocking Health Care Reform (which they ARE doing on principle, even if it's a principle we don't agree with) have a case, albeit a weak one.
Are there options available to us that we can use to peel off members of that coalition without eliminating the possibility for any reproductive coverage for people through the Exchange or the PO? Can the Capps amendment be reworded in such a way that it doesn't change much of what it's doing, but it can be cleanly explained to VOTERS that it's addressing the Pro-Life Democrats' concerns even if they keep denying it isn't?
I think any system we can come up with where "Public Option Money" that might be spent on abortions never finds its way into Federal Hands will break that coalition up enough to get the bill passed without Hyde. Stupak is one of only a handful of COMPLETELY pro-life Dems... I think at least half if not a majority of the people he has in his corner are from the more "Rational" school where they are pro life and don't want to encourage abortion (like we do? But that's another diary) but at least understand that Roe v. Wade is settled law. So what do you think? My suggestions are just the first things that came to me.
ACTION TO TAKE RIGHT THIS SECOND
Looking beyond the conversation, there IS action that can be taken now. I don't know who "All" of Stupak's allies are, but here are some pretty safe bets. If you live in their district, call them and tell them the Capps amendment goes far enough and that the health care crisis in this country is killing people too. We're all "pro life."
House of Representatives Switchboard:
(202) 224-3121
Allan Mollohan (WV-1)
Bart Stupak (MI-1)
Charlie Wilson (Oh-6)
Nick Rahall (WV-3)
Mike Ross (AR-4)
Jim Marshall (GA-8)
Tim Holden (PA-17)
Charlie Melancon (LA-3)
Marion Berry (AR-1)
Dan Lipinski (IL-3)
Steve Driehaus (OH-1)
Jim Oberstar (MN-8)
Lincoln Davis (TN-4)
Leonard Boswell (IA-3)
Gene Taylor (MS-4)
Jason Altmire (PA-4)
Travis Childers (MS-1)
Jack Murtha (PA-12)
Dale Kildee (MI-5)
Collin Peterson (MN-7)
Jerry Costello (IL-12)
John Boccieri (OH-16)
Parker Griffith (AL-5)
John Tanner (TN-8)
Christopher Carney (PA-10)
Heath Shuler (NC-11)
Dan Boren (OK-2)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Marcy Kaptur (OH-9)
These are people who signed a letter asking Nancy Pelosi to give Stupak's amendment a vote. If you are calling and learn that one of them is willing to go on the record and say the Capps amendment goes far enough and we don't need the Hyde language to pass it, let me know and I'll take them off the list. Likewise if you know one of the definite forty who didn't sign this letter, let me know that and I'll add them.
When we fight, we win. Keep fighting.
FINAL NOTE:
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I was just wrapping up the tagging and polling of this and wanted to add one final thing in my own "pre emptive defense." I disagree with Stupak on this very, very strongly. And I disagree with his cohorts on it too. And if we can exclude their amendment and still get this thing to the floor and pass it, let's do that. Maybe he's bluffing and maybe it's a bluff we can call. Pelosi can count votes better than I can, and I believe if this is a bluff, she'll call it. I'm only interested in what we do if it isn't a bluff, and what we stand to gain and lose. Like I said, there's no reason we can't do the "Action" part right now and make some calls.