In his Op-Ed in the Detroit News today, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Coathanger) turns on the charm offensive.
And it’s nauseating.
Oh, he starts out reasonable enough:
I adamantly oppose the sweetheart deals provided to certain states in this bill. This reform should be about providing access to affordable health care for all Americans. Where you live should have nothing to do with the quality or cost of your coverage.
Yeah! [Fist jab!!!] In fact, HELL yeah!!!
And then he goes on:
One of the critical accomplishments in the House bill was the repeal of the antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry and the creation of the public health insurance option.
HELL yeah, part II!!!
He goes on a bit further:
I was part of a working group of House members who negotiated to fix regional inequities in Medicare reimbursement rates by adding language to H.R. 3962 that would change Medicare reimbursement to be based on quality rather than utilization. However, this provision was also significantly watered down in the Senate. We need to pay health care providers for how healthy we are rather than on how many tests our doctors perform.
HELL yeah, part III!!!
But then he gets to the nitty gritty of his Op-Ed:
There continues to be a great deal of discussion surrounding abortion language in the health care bill and the Stupak-Ellsworth-Pitts amendment specifically. Let me be clear: Our amendment maintains current law that says no federal funding for abortion.Further, not one person has been able to show where the actual language in our amendment is different from language in the Hyde amendment that has been in effect for the past 33 years.
Aw, Jebus, dude. How dumb do you think we are? If this was the same as the Hyde amendment, you wouldn’t need YOUR amendment, right? No, yours does go further and it will hurt poor women disproportionately. SEVERELY dispropotionately. So let’s not kid ourselves here about how this is just the sameolesameolenothingtoseeheremovealongthen, m’kay?
‘Cause it’s not. You know it. I know it. Pretty much any progressive you can find knows it. Unfortunately, Mr. Reasonable, most of the voters in your state and across the country probably don’t know it so you can get away with your little charm offensive and eeeeeveryone thinks you’re Mr. Reasonable.
Just to add salt to the wound and rub it in a bit, he gives us this bit of bile-inducing history rewriting:
Those upset about our amendment in the House legislation do not think I should be voting pro-life. They fail to mention it was the support from pro-life Democrats that provided the critical votes needed to pass health care reform in the House.
Look here, you douchenozzle: If you were a TRUE Democrat and supported the Democratic platform as it is written, you and your Conservadem cohort wouldn’t have been fortunate enough to be in a position of such power where you are able to hold a gun to the heads of the TRUE Democrats out there who are pro-Choice and who favored the most progressive elements of the health insurance reform bill. Hell, if all Democrats where TRUE Democrats, we’d probably have a single-payer system already passed.
So don’t give me your dishonest charm school rhetoric. I ain’t buyin’ it. I see you for you who you are on this issue and none of your sweet-talking is going to change that knowledge: you are an anti-woman Catholic who is working to set back the rights of women to control their bodies by decades.
And to that I say HELL no, parts I, II, AND III!!!
I’m just sayin’…
