RUSH: Here from the WeeklyStandard.com by John McCormack: ‘Stupak: There’s No Deal, and I Won’t Agree to a Promise to Fix the Bill in the Future.’ Now, ‘Stupak said that White House officials 
are ‘trying to get face time with members to convince them to vote for a bill that no one has seen in writing.”
So they are working on something other than the Senate bill, ’cause they know that’s a nonstarter in the House. So they’re working on something out there but nobody’s seen it. And Stupak’s saying, ‘I’m going to see it first, I’m not going to accept your promises.’ Now, Bart’s still a Democrat. And Democrats are Democrats first at the end of the day. ”The point I was trying to make’ by relaying the opera story, Stupak said, ‘is that the White House is pulling out all of the stops trying to get members to commit to voting for health care. I continue to say to the White House: Put forth your proposal in writing so that members can see it. No member is so weak on this issue that just because they got to go to the opera they’re going to vote for health care.’ 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.”
Now, there’s a big trick, there is a huge trick that is being planned in the Senate regarding abortion to try to satisfy Stupak and his guys, and I have to say the Republicans have discovered the trick, and they’re not going to fall for it. The trick — and I’ll explain this in greater detail when we come back — but the trick was to get Republicans to go along with stripping any federal funding for abortion in the Senate bill during reconciliation, and the Republicans would go for that but Republicans, oh, pro-lifers out there vote for Republicans, and the Republicans said, ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey, we’re not going to carry your water. This is your bill. If you want to strip abortion funding out, you’re on your own, we ain’t doing it for you.’ Now, that’s gutsy because they’re running the risk a lot of pro-life groups are going to see the Republicans refusing to strip federal funding from the Senate bill, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa wait a minute here. I thought you Republicans were pro-lifers.’
This is going to be an interesting test because the genuine pro-life groups out there are going to understand what’s going on. The objective is to defeat health care, not come up with a health care bill that does not have federal funding for abortion. The objective is to wipe this out. The objective is to stop it. Not to end up with a bill that Democrats will sign and give to Obama and the only way to do that is to not help them strip the abortion funding out of the Senate bill. The Republicans are not going to do that. Am I making myself clear on this? Do you understand? I’m willing to say it two or three times because this is going to be one of those times where the Republicans in the Senate are going to go against their core belief, they’re gonna look like they are because the real pro-life groups know that at the end of the day there’s going to be federal funding for abortion if this thing passes. It’s going to get added at some point down the line. The objective is to make sure this thing doesn’t go any further than where it is right now, and the Republicans are not going to help the Democrats satisfy Stupak. It’s just that simple. At least that’s what they’re saying now.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, let me try to explain this again here, because if you’re hearing this for the first time it may sound a little convoluted. One of the great, great talents I have is making the complex understandable. So let’s start at the beginning. Bart Stupak (Democrat-Michigan) House of Representatives is pro-life. The only thing Stupak objects to in all of this Obamacare garbage is the fact that abortions are federally funded in the Senate bill. Stupak says he has 12 votes to vote against Obamacare, the Senate bill, unless the federal funding for abortion is taken out of it. Now, the Democrats in the Senate don’t want abortion taken out of it (they put it in there because they like it) and most of the Democrats in the House want federal funding for abortions.
If this passes — in any way, shape, manner, or form — no matter what they do, there will be eventually and ultimately federal funding for abortions, taxpayer-funded abortions in Obamacare. So if there is reconciliation… Now, remember, Stupak is saying that he hasn’t seen a bill, meaning they’re making promises to him that the abortion funding will be stripped out of it but he hasn’t seen it in writing. The reason he hasn’t is because reconciliation hasn’t begun, and there’s still a genuine question as to whether or not there will ever be reconciliation. See, the argument is they’re trying to convince Stupak they’re going to make him happy but they’re not showing him anything in writing and he’s demanding it in writing.
There is nothing to show him. So if — if, if — we get to reconciliation, the Senate Republicans have announced a strategy to block any effort the Democrats make to take abortion funding out of it. This is going to incur the wrath of some pro-life groups if they’re not up to speed on this, and I hope the Senate Republican leadership takes some steps behind the scenes to explain what’s going on here. But see, the objective here is not — and for those of you who are pro-lifers, understand something: The overall objective here is to kill the bill, not get a bill passed that strips funding for abortion. This bill is a disaster even if they strip federal funding for abortion out of it. So the objective here is to kill it. The objective is to send this bill packing yet again never, ever to be heard from again.
Now the only way that Stupak, as far as what he’s saying, can be mollified is if he sees something in writing in the reconciliation pack that says, ‘Yep, federal funding for abortion is coming out of there.’ So if we go to reconciliation, there will be an effort by the Democrats to strip abortion funding from the bill, and the Republicans’ strategy is to oppose and stop and stop any such effort. What the Republicans are going to do to facilitate this in reconciliation (and remember this is this ‘budget reconciliation’) is they’ll raise a point of order. This is a procedural effort that is objecting essentially to the reconciliation process.
They’re trying to get back to 60 votes to defeat this thing, when the Democrats don’t have 60 votes, unless some Republicans join them in stripping federal funding. So the Republicans say, ‘We’re not going to join the Democrats’ efforts because we are not going to do the Democrats’ dirty work for them. We’re not going to be the guys, just because we’re thought to be pro-lifers, to make Stupak happy. We’re not going to be the guys that take language he doesn’t like out of this bill. If the Democrats want to take it out they gotta find a way to do it on their own without us and we’re going to invoke a point of order which is going to require them to get 60 votes to do it.’ Now, holy hell is going to be raised if we get to this point. Again, I’m still not convinced we’re going to get to reconciliation. Look, folks, it’s very simple.
You Democrats in the Congress gotta ask yourself something: If a president of the United States would ambush a Supreme Court sitting in front of him at a State of the Union speech, if a president of the United States would ambush Supreme Court justices, do you think he would have the slightest compunction in ambushing you either in front of you or behind your back? If this guy is willing to diss the US Supreme Court and the justices who showed up at the State of the Union, don’t think you’re sacred. So the whole point here is to defeat the bill if it goes to reconciliation. If it gets this far — I’ll be stunned, but if it does, this is the strategy — Democrats are going to have to find a way to take abortion funding, let them make their base mad and let them make Stupak happy. The Republicans are not gonna carry the water for the Democrats to make Stupak happy. That’s a big test if we do get to this reconciliation biz.