'Blue Dogs' key in turning back ObamaCare (OneNewsNow.com)

'Blue Dogs' key in turning back ObamaCare

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 9/19/2009 6:00:00 AM

Values Voter Summit logo Three Republican lawmakers have warned a gathering of conservative activists in Washington, DC, there will be disastrous fallout if the House healthcare bill is signed into law.

Representatives Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), Tom Price (R-Georgia), and Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) took part in a national healthcare town hall meeting at the Values Voter Summit on Friday. Bachmann said 85 percent of Americans are currently happy with their healthcare coverage, but that H.R. 3200 -- the bill causing most of the stir in the current debate on healthcare reform -- would destroy what is working for that percentage to pay for the remaining 15 percent who either lack coverage or are unsatisfied with their current plan.

Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) To buttress her opposition to a government takeover of healthcare, the Republican lawmaker cited research from Arizona State University showing that since corporate bailouts began last year, 30 percent of private business profits are owned by the government. According to Bachmann, before the inception of "bailout nation," all of private business profits were private.

Additionally, she noted that on Thursday the House voted to enact another "government takeover" by doing away with private lending for student loans.

On another note, Congressman Smith told the audience that the public health insurance option would lead to the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade, and praised his pro-life colleague Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) for urging Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) to exclude taxpayer funding of abortion from the House legislation. Smith called Stupak's effort to get abortion funding removed from the bill "valiant, brave and courageous."

ObamaCare 3 Stupak, along with Joe Pitts (R-Pennsylvania), offered an amendment in the House Energy and Commerce Committee that would have prohibited funds in the bill from paying for health plans that covered abortion. When committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-California) realized the vote would narrowly pass, he voted "yes" on the amendment. Under committee rules, Waxman's "yes" vote gave him the ability to bring the amendment up for a second vote.

Shortly afterwards, he succeeded in convincing "Blue Dog" Democrat Bart Gordon (D-Tennessee) to flip his original "yes" vote to "no," and the amendment was killed. Congressman Price, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told the Values Voter town hall yesterday that "Blue Dogs" like Gordon and Stupak have an opportunity to "show backbone" and derail government-run healthcare because Republicans are united against it.

However, Price cautioned that "at every turn" of the healthcare debate thus far "hopes have been dashed" by wavering Blue Dogs, all of whom voted for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.