Congress Play Politics With Health Reform

TAPPER: Here’s a question a lot of Senate Democrats want to know. You said, when you gave your joint address to Congress, that under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions. This amendment passed Saturday night which not only prohibits abortion coverage in the public option, but also prohibits women who receive subsidies from taking out plans that — that provide abortion coverage. Does that meet the promise that you set out or does it over reach, does it go too far?

OBAMA: You know, I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill. 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. And I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that test — that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortions, but, on the other hand, that we’re not restricting women’s insurance choices, because one of the pledges I made in that same speech was to say that if you’re happy and satisfied with the insurance that you have, that it’s not going to change. So, you know, this is going to be a complex set of negotiations. I’m confident that we can actually arrive at this place where neither side feels that it’s being betrayed. But it’s going to take some time.

TAPPER: Do you think that amendment is status quo or does it lean a little bit in one direction or the other?

OBAMA: I think that there are strong feelings on both sides. 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. And that’s the goal. The goal here is to make sure that people who have health insurance have greater stability and security, people who don’t have health insurance get the ability to buy it affordably and that we’re driving down costs.

--Back to reality. So looking at this, and with all the talk even coming from the left, about the abortion amendment, that would prohibit tax payer funded abortions being part of health reform, being repealed, i mean what do you make of this?

What you have here, is a classic example of politics.

You have, the house, who knows that they can't pass this bill, so they play up to the blue dogs, by offering this amendment to the bill to get their vote. Bribing them, and then once they get their vote, and pass this god awful thing, then, they get rid of it. And tell the senate to not have it, in their bill. So they used this just to get it passed, and then once it is passed throw it out and put public funded abortions back in and say sorry that's politics.

Man some congressman are gonna be regretting this in 2010.