But the way to "compromise" is not at all clear, and may be impossible. The Senate bill can't be amended before a House vote, and any "fixes" would require a childlike trust on the part of House members. John McCormack follows up on Stupak's recent compromise-is-possible remarks:
It's not clear, but it sounds as though the idea is to use the president's eleven-page "plan" (remember that?) as the "fix" come reconciliation time. Or maybe not. If you're confused, you're not alone."Everyone’s going around saying there’s a compromise—there’s no such thing," Stupak said. What's changed between this week and last, Stupak went on, is that he had his first real conversation with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Congressman Henry Waxman about fixing the bill.
But Stupak made one thing very clear: While he's optimistic, there's a lot of confusion about how the House would structure a bill that he could vote for. Stupak says "the majority party can get it done. Where there’s a will there’s a way." But: "No one has said here's how you do it, here's the legislative scheme."
Stupak affirmed that he will not settle for an agreement to pass the bill now and fix the bill's problems on abortion later: "If they say 'we’ll give you a letter saying we'll take care of this later,' that’s not acceptable because later never comes." [. . .]
"The president still hasn’t put forth his proposal. I mean, other than the 11 pages [of changes], we’ve seen nothing in writing. It’s different than what the Senate did. So do they take three [measures] and merge it into one and stick it in a bill called reconciliation, or just do the Senate bill as a stand alone?" [. . .]
Stupak says that congressional leaders are "going back and forth in different ways" to find a compromise. But again, "it is so confusing," he said, "on what the parliamentary procedures are going to be" to make the fixes.
The congressman tries to reassure on an important point:
Stupak emphasized that his coalition of pro-life Democrats is sticking together: "My numbers remain firm at 12. These are 12 who voted for it [in November] who will not vote for it unless we resolve this issue."Here's hoping that's true.
Turns out Rep. Stupak is not a fan of Russian opera. The White House needs to fine-tune their inducements a bit. Read the rest.
Linked at Michelle Malkin (buzzworthy)
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