Obama: 'This Is a Health Care Bill, Not An Abortion Bill'
President Obama said today that Congress needs to change abortion-related language in the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives this weekend.
"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama said. "And we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."
Saying the bill cannot change the status quo regarding the ban on federally funded abortions, the president said, "There are strong feelings on both sides" about an amendment passed Saturday and added to the legislation, "and what that tells me is that there needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo."
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Authentic Conservative
by Andrew Napolitano
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We Can't Sit Back and Allow the Loss of Our Freedoms
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We elect the government. It works for us. As we watch the Democrats' plans for health care take shape, we can only ask how did our government get so removed, so unbridled, so arrogant that it can tell us how to live our personal lives?
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Last Saturday, at 11 o’clock in the evening, the House of Representatives voted by a five vote margin to have the federal government manage the health care of every American at a cost of $1 trillion dollars over the next ten years.
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For the first time in American history, if this bill becomes law, the Feds will force you to buy insurance you might not want, or may not need, or cannot afford. If you don’t purchase what the government tells you to buy, if you don’t do so when they tell you to do it, and if you don’t buy just what they say is right for you, the government may fine you, prosecute you, and even put you in jail. Freedom of choice and control over your own body will be lost. The privacy of your communications and medical decision making with your physician will be gone. More of your hard earned dollars will be at the disposal of federal bureaucrats.
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It was not supposed to be this way. We elect the government. It works for us. How did it get so removed, so unbridled, so arrogant that it can tell us how to live our personal lives? Evil rarely comes upon us all at once, and liberty is rarely lost in one stroke. It happens gradually, over the years and decades and even centuries. A little stretch here, a cave in there, powers are slowly taken from the states and the people and before you know it, we have one big monster government that recognizes no restraint on its ability to tell us how to live. It claims the power to regulate any activity, tax any behavior, and demand conformity to any standard it chooses.
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The Founders did not give us a government like the one we have today. The government they gave us was strictly limited in its scope, guaranteed individual liberty, preserved the free market, and on matters that pertain to our private behavior was supposed to leave us alone.
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In the Constitution, the Founders built in checks and balances. If the Congress got out of hand, the states would restrain it. If the states stole liberty or property, the Congress would cure it. If the President tried to become a king, the courts would prevent it.
The Lone Conspirator
Impeach this communist rat now. I`m sick of looking at this A-hole.
Iamnoone
Get used to it. He'll be here 7 more years.
Dale Jeu
Obama is a PROVEN LIAR.
Obama opens mouth, LIE comes out.
Obama loves abortion, give his mother a late-term abortion.
Dale Jeu
Obama is a PROVEN LIAR.
Obama opens mouth, LIE comes out.
Obama loves abortion, give his mother a late-term abortion.
MissDonna
This bill is about "Sick Care". Being pregnant does not equate with being "Sick". It is not for "well people" - they don't need doctors, nor do women who are with child. Very few abortions are done because of the health of the mother or child or rape or incest. As our "leader" once said, he wouln't want one of his daughters inconvienenced by being pregnant. So if he says it is just an inconvienence does that make it OK? Why is it OK to be found guilty of murder because you punched your girlfriend in the belly and caused her to loose the child, but a doctor could have taken that same child out of the womb and it would be no big deal. UGH... it makes me sick!
Sharon
Abortion is an ELECTIVE surgery as long as the mother's life is not in imminent danger from the pregnancy. There goes your argument NYer.
If you want it ,you pay for it, out of your own pocket, not from the public till.
Do that and you will hear no argument from me.
NYer
What I think a lot of people don't recognize is that you're paying one way or another. Either you, as a tax payer, pay a very nominal cost to have an abortion, or you pay a much higher cost to raise a child that will inevitably end up in the foster system.
To me, it's an easy decision, but I do respect that for some it isn't. I just think we shouldn't steamroll healthcare reform in this country for something that is really, quite trivial.
soonan TX
As I have said before. I consider abortion murder and to make me and others who feel the same pay tax dollars for abortion makes me feel like an accessory to that murder. Actually it does make me one. NO!
dmbp
Besides that fact that many Americans, myself included, or morally against abortion, the procedure for the most part is elective. Like implants and cheekbone construction. Sex change is also legal, so I guess everyone saying abortion is a legal health option won't mind paying for Bill getting implants or Susie getting an "appendage".
conservabit
He's going to use the reconciliation or nuclear option to get this passed. That 's why he's pushing Reid. I believe the "behind closed door sessions" were setting it up. Otherwise, why is it taking CBO so long to score it?? That is the ONLY way they will get this bill passed w/abortion.
DMURPHY87
HEY ALL YOU GUYS THAT HATE THE INS. COMPANYS GET THIS . OBAMA CARE WILL MANDATE EVERY ONE HAS TO ENROLL IN AN INS. PLAN . WOW THE INS.COMPANYS MUST BE LAUGHING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.
Jim in JAX
You missed the fact that the public option/government run insurance will drive private insurance companies out of business. Private insurance companies will also be government controlled as to coverage, premiums and refunds. So no one is laughing about this anywhere.
dems are ruining this country
If abortion coverage was not in the bill , then why was planned parenthood supporting it ? Anyone who does not believe that radical liberals like Obama do not worship at the alter of abortion is very ignorant . Just look at his pro-abortion voting record while senator.
NYer
Planned Parenthood does much, much more than abortions. They are a pro-women's health organization that also offers free and reduced cost birth control, routine checkups, mammograms, ultrasounds, pap smears, sonagrams, etc.
Considering that they shoulder a lot of the un - and under - insured burden for women in this country, it makes a lot of sense that they'd support a plan that provides insurance for everyone.
soonan TX
That does not make the abortion issue okay. Also, are they getting tax dollars to do all of this? Thought so.
Landman48
Obama is a liar. yes I said it...our President is a liar.
GRuss
I am not religeous! Abortion is legal, however, Pregnancy is an avoidable condition and Abortion is Elective Surgery. There is no logical reason I, as a taxpayer, should pay to correct a condition caused by your carelessness. Take responsibility for your actions and use your own money to terminate the life you created. Don't put the burden on me.
NYer
I shouldn't have to pay for someone's triple bypass because they ate horribly and didn't exercise.
You're absolutely right, abortion is elective and regardless what most anti-choice proponents would have you believe, it is not a common form of birth control. But accidents (and rapes and dangerous pregnancies) occur and I'd prefer to see that pregnancy ended then support yet another avoidable, unwanted child through the welfare system.
soonan TX
How very many families are aching to adopt a newborn?
puckerup America
I don't want my tax dollars paying for abortions or subsidizing insurance plans that cover abortions, just like I don't my tax dollars paying for plastic surgery. Keep the amendment, and assure us all that won't happen.
NYer
You do realize that abortion is a legal medical procedure, correct? Just like an appendectomy or chemotherapy for cancer.
Why would a national healthcare plan have stipulation on which legal medical procedures someone can receive?
soonan TX
No, just like an appendectomy or chemotherapy. Unless the mother's life is in danger this is murder. You seem to consider this murder no worse than an illness.
Dave6280
Why should my tax dollars go to something that I have a moral objection too.
steve.c.
" Not an abortion bill ? " Then why do you want to make it one?
puckerup America
Why not keep the Stupak amendment since abortion isn't a "healthcare" issue?
conservabit
Not a healthcare bill...it's a take over of the insurance industry!!
puckerup America
This is not a health care bill, it is an insurance bill.
Cruz
I wish he'd made up his damned mind. He has been insisting for the past 3 months that this is a health INSURANCE bill, now it's back to healthCARE? And how in HELL is aborting a baby healthy for the baby?
Carolina Blues Billy-Bob
Trust requires honesty.... wonder how 'dem approval polls are lookin'?
Authentic Conservative
With one fell swoop the house of representatives took aim at individual freedom and instituted a government take over of almost every aspect of American life. The public health care system, if the senate passes a similar bill, will become the world's largest employer, and tax rates will go through the roof, on every American. An entitlement society will take place, and unemployment will be permanently above 10%. The only hope we have is a massive shift in power in 2010, with the majority being lost by the democrats in both house...
Authentic Conservative
The "Taliban Ticket?
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"Swine flu has claimed the lives of at least 114 children in the United States since April, according to the latest data available from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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But an estimated 2,247 to 3,305 babies lose their lives to abortion each day, based on statistics compiled by both the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute, a private research foundation tied to the abortion industry.
Authentic Conservative
Get your 2010 Great American Conservative Women calendar
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Sharon
I get more ticked off at this admin everyday...God help anyone in the path of someone with less self control than myself!!
Authentic Conservative
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 30% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.Fourty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10
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Total Disapprove 52%
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soonan TX
Yes and the Dems are planning on trying to put abortion back in the Senate version. I think I have heard more blatant lies from this congress and WH than in my lifetime. And they aren't robbing/rationing the seniors either? The seiors are already rationed in some ways and now they want to rob them more just as they have always done and the Democrtats are the one who set this up in the first place.
Authentic Conservative
Dems Rejected 11 Amendments Requiring Congress to Enroll in Gov’t-Run Health Plan
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http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/56897
Authentic Conservative
Democrats’ Health Care Plan Will ‘Shred Constitution,’ Hoekstra Says
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http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/56901
druid
It should be remembered that HRH Obama was insensed when his stimulus package was called a spending package. Remarking that; "What do they think a stimulus is?" Now he is upset that his abortion bill, I mean his health care bill has been mistaken for an abortion bill, or is it the other way round?
Teresa
Obama has no end to his lies and people continue to believe every lie he spews from his America hating mouth. If my tax dollars in any way funds abortion I strongly protest and find it to be another thing that we Americans are be forced to do.
Is anyone aware that this healthcare bill as now written can not only require us to pay a fine for not purchasing insurance but we can be fined $25.000 and/or do prison time? This without a doubt is unconstitutional.
Jim in JAX
Like I'm supposed to believe what Obama says????
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
shawn boles
Americans are fed up!
cajunmobster
another episode of Lie Hard....
FAILURE-IN-CHIEF
If another country tried to do to America what the current Congress is doing, we would declare war on them.
MNgoodGuy
Umm... most other industrial countries have some sort of universal health care
USA Made
Yeah and you said you were going to be a leader too - you jerk!!!
Fraggin
You LIe!! Health care has little to do with this huge power grab.
Nancy N
This is not a health care bill either. It is an attempt on Government take over of the health care system. It should never have passed the House and without payoffs and bribes it wouldn't have