PRESIDENTIAL DOUBLESPEAK—”OUR PLAN” DOES NOT FEDERALLY FUND ABORTIONS

posted at 8:42 am on October 27, 2009 by Rovin
[ Healthcare ]   

Doublespeak: 1) any language that pretends to communicate but actually does not. 2) a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth.

The unpleasant truth came on the night President Obama told Congress and the American people that quote: ‘And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up: Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” unquote. But, “Houston,–(Mr. President)– we have a problem”.   According to an interview Terence Jeffery (the editor in chief at CNSNews) had with Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.), Stupak says the president told him “he was not talking about the actual bill drafted in the House but about the president’s own health care plan”:

(CNSNews.com)

 - Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama told him in a telephone conversation that when he said in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress that “under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” he was not talking about the actual bill drafted in the House but about the president’s own health care plan—which has never been written.

 ”I don’t know if it is a game of semantics or what,” Stupak said of Obama’s nationally televised declaration to Congress that the health-care plan will not allow federal funding of abortion. Both the House and Senate versions of the health-care bill permit federal funds to pay for insurance plans that cover abortions.  LINK

 Here is the video link to the conversation between Jeffery and Stupak

 Enter representative Lois Capps:

On July 30, the committee approved an amendment to the bill sponsored by Rep. Lois Capps (D.-Calif.) that mandates that at least one insurance plan in each exchange must cover abortions.

In the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Stupak offered his own amendment to the health care bill that would have prohibited federal funds from being used to cover “any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion.” This amendment mirrors the language of the Hyde Amendment that is included each year in various annual appropriations bills. Because the Hyde Amendment only affects funding included in the appropriations bill that carries it, its prohibition on abortion funding would not apply to the permanent funding stream for federal health insurance subsidies that would be set up by the health-care reform bills drafted by the House and Senate.

Stupak’s amendment was defeated in the committee on July 31, by a 27-to-31 vote. Stupak’s next move was to try to bring his amendment to the house floor, but the Speaker of the House will not allow it:

Stupak told CNSNews.com he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will try to kill the health care bill itself unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) agrees to allow an up-or-down vote on his amendment when the bill comes to the House floor.

“The speaker has told me I will not have my amendment,” said Stupak. “It will not be made in order.”

Now we should try to recall that this is NOT “President Obama’s plan” that he was addressing to the Congress and EVERY AMERICAN, except, also according to Stupak, the President supports Stupak’s goal of prohibiting federal funding of abortion.

Stupak also said that during his telephone conversation with Obama the president indicated that he supports Stupak’s goal of prohibiting federal funding of abortion through the health-care reform plan, although the president did not say that he supports the specific language of Stupak’s amendment.

Paging Joe Wilson………..

(please read the complete article at CNSNews.com—-so you can be more thoroughly confused about “President Obama’s plan”.  Note: all block quotes are from this CNSNews story)

Pehaps I should check with Mr. Morrissey to find out if this could go under the category of an Obamateurism?

Blowback